
BIOGRAPIHCAL SKETCH 



OF 




ON. MUSCOE RUSSELL 
HUNTER GARNETT, 



(1821-1864) 



OF 



ELMWOOD," ESSEX CO., VA., 



BY 

JAMES MERCER GARNETT, 

Member of American Historical Association and of Maryland 

Historical Society, and Ex-Member of Virginia 

Historical Society. 



Reprint from July and October Numbers (igog) 

of If' il Ham and Mary College 

Sluarterly Magazine. 




lass 



£^\b^ 



9\ 



PRESENTi:n BY 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH v/; 

/ 



/ 

OF 



HON. MUSCOE RUSSELL 
HUNTER GARNETT, 

(1821-1864) 



OF 



"ELMWOOD," ESSEX CO., VA., 



BY 



JAMES MERCER GARNETT, 

Member of American Historical Association and of Maryland 

Historical Society, and Ex-Member of Virginia 

Historical Society. 




Reprint from July and October Numbers (iqoq) 

of fPilliam and Mary College 

Quarterly Magazine. 



1- 



1 



Gifg 
fi£C 24191)^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

OF 

Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett, 

OF ESSEX COUNTY, VIRGINIA. 

(1821-1864) 

This brief sketch will serve to introduce to the present 
generation, and to bring before his contemporaries, few of 
whom are now living, the memory of one of the younger 
statesmen of Virginia, who flourished fifty years ago and bril- 
liantly adorned the annals of the Commonwealth. He was 
universally regarded as one of the most intellectual, and one 
of the most highly educated, young men, especially in his 
knowledge of history and literature, and political science, that 
this State has ever produced. He was cut off by disease in 
the vigor of his young manhood, but not before he had made 
a name for himself, and had already taken a high stand in 
political life, which bade fair to honor him with the highest 
honors that the Commonwealth could bestow. The position 
that he had already attained at forty years of age was but an 
earnest of what the future had in store for him. 

Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett was born on July 25''', 
1821, the son of James Mercer Garnett, Jr., and Maria Hun- 
ter. His father was the eldest son of the Hon. James Mer- 
cer Garnett, of Elmwood, Essex county, Virginia, and his 
first cousin, Mary Eleanor Dick Mercer, daughter of Judge 
James Mercer, of the Virginia Court of Appeals (see William 
and Mary College Quarterly, XVII. , 2 and 3, October, 1908, 
and January, 1909). His grandfather Garnett had served in 
the State Legislature, and in the United States Congress for 
two terms (1805-1809), when he declined a renomination ; and 
he afterwards served in that noted Constitutional Convention 
of 1829-30, which has been called the most distinguished body 
of men that ever assembled on the soil of Virginia, of which 



4 Biographical Sketch 

President Monroe was the president, and President Madison, 
Chief Justice Marshall, and a host of the most prominent men 
in the State, were members. 

His mother was a daughter of James Hunter and his first 
wife, Maria Garnett, daughter of Muscoe Garnett and Grace 
Fenton Mercer, and sister of Hon. James Mercer Garnett. 
She was an elder sister of the late Hon. Robert Mercer Talia- 
ferro Hunter, who served in the State Legislature, the 
U. S. House of Representatives, of which body he was the 
Speaker in 1839-40, and later in the U. S. and the Confederate 
States Senates, and was Confederate Secretary of State for 
several months. 

His grandfather, Hon. James Mercer Garnett, was the son 
of Muscoe Garnett and Grace Fenton Mercer, daughter of 
John Mercer, of Marlborough, Stafford county — a lawyer, au- 
thor of Mercer's "Abridgment of the Laws of Virginia," and 
his second wife Anne Roy, He was a grandson of James 
Garnett and his second wife, Elizabeth Muscoe, daughter of 
Salvator Muscoe, a lawyer, and a member of the Virginia 
House of Burgesses (1734-40), of which body James Garnett 
was also a member (1744-47). James Garnett was the son 
of John Garnett, of Gloucester county, later of Essex county, 
Virginia, whose will was proved in Essex county court March 
II, 1713. He is supposed to have been descended from the 
Garnetts of Lancashire, England, but the date of his immigra- 
tion to Virginia is not known. 

James Hunter, maternal grandfather of M. R. H. Garnett, 
was the son of William Hunter and Sarah Garnett, daughter 
of William Garnett, — who was the son of the above-named 
James Garnett and his first wife, Sarah Green, — and Ann 
Rowzee. Both the parents and the grandparents of M. R. H. 
Garnett were, therefore, related to each other. Muscoe was 
the surname of his paternal great-great-grandmother, Russell 
was a surname in the Hunter family, and Hunter was the sur- 
name of his mother, who was a first cousin of his father, James 
Mercer Garnett, Jr. His father was educated at Princeton 
College, but left before graduation and entered upon the prac- 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 5 

tice of the law. He died in his thirtieth year, too early to 
make a name for himself, but family tradition credits him with 
most remarkable talents. His mother was a woman of un- 
usual intellectual powers, a strong and determined will, and 
excellent business qualifications, and was one who impressed 
herself upon all with whom she came in contact. She was 
very fond of reading, and having access to good libraries in 
both her father's and her uncle's homes, had fitted herself 
well to direct the education of her son, who received his 
early training at her hands, and those of his maternal aunts, 
all intellectual women. One of these aunts. Miss Martha Fen- 
ton Hunter, well known in her day as an authoress, chiefly of 
children's stories and novels — one of which. The Clifford Fam- 
ily, attained considerable reputation — has left us a sketch of 
her nephew, which deserves insertion here as the only con- 
temporary account that has been preserved, written by one 
who knew him well all his life and took part in his early edu- 
cation, as did also another aunt. Miss Jane Swann Hunter, who 
possessed one of the strongest feminine minds that the writer 
has ever known. 

After the death of his grandfather, Hon. James Mercer 
Garnett, of "Elmwood," in 1843, his daughter-in-law and her 
son lived for many years at "Fonthill," Essex county, Vir- 
ginia, the residence of her brother, the Hon. Robert M. T. 
Hunter, with whom also Hved his above-mentioned sisters, and 
it was under such training and influence that young Muscoe 
Garnett was brought up until he was nearly thirty years of 
age. 

The following is the sketch referred to above : 

Memoir of Muscoe R. H. Garnett by His Aunt, Martha 

F. Hunter. 

"M. R. H. Garnett [was] born on July 25"', 1821, at Elm- 
wood in Essex county [Virginia]. Strongly marked traits of 
character and mind were much earlier developed than is usual 
with children, in the subject of this memoir. He was gifted 



6 Biographical Sketch 

by nature with unusual sensibility, quickness and delicacy of 
perception, and was always remarked by his friends for a 
depth and reach of thought far beyond his years. Though 
his temper was naturally quick and his feelings impetuous, 
there was so much native kindness and gentleness in his dis- 
position that no one who knew him can recall an act of boyish 
cruelty, or violence, ever committed by him ; the sight of suf- 
fering always caused him pain, partly, I believe, from deli- 
cacy of organization, partly from strong natural sensibility, 
and in some measure also attributable to his having been edu- 
cated by women during the early years of his life. The early 
influences under which he was fostered, and the circumstance 
of being an only child, no doubt greatly contributed to 
strengthen these traits of character, and produced a degree of 
purity and refinement of feeling, which made the necessary in- 
tercourse with the world in after life often painful and jarring 
to his spirit. A few anecdotes will illustrate the very early 
development of his mind, and the subjects of thought upon 
which he loved to dwell. 

When not more than five years of age, he used to delight 
in hearing passages from "The Pilgrim's Progress," and at- 
tempted to draw a picture of the Last Judgment, the dead ris- 
ing from their graves, Christ on the throne of His Glory, the 
sheep on His right hand and the goats on His left. The draw- 
ing, of course, consisted only of wide, imperfect pencil marks, 
but the idea which he attempted to explain in all its details 
with great animation, and something too of solemnity, quite 
touching in so young a child, was remarkable. 

He showed, when not more than seven or eight years of 
age, a marked fondness for poetry, history and geography, 
and made very early attempts at composition; at eight and 
nine he wrote tales and verses evincing a power of expression 
and thought very unusual at so early an age. When not more 
than eight years of age he would spend two or three hours at 
a time stretched on the floor in the parlor, studying Le Sage's 
Atlas, perfectly absorbed in tracing the courses of rivers and 
the relative position [s] of towns and counties. When he was 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 7 

not more than ten years of age, he undertook to edit a literary 
paper to which he engaged some of his friends and acquaint- 
ances as contributors, and for which he wrote several articles, 
but as every number was to be sent in manuscript, the under- 
taking proved so laborious as to be soon relinquished. His 
aims were always high and his interest directed to objects 
which seldom engage the attention of boys. He acquired very 
early habits of accuracy and research, and a power of syste- 
matising and generalising whatever knowledge he acquired, so 
as to bring it to bear upon any subject to which his attention 
was directed. It was one of his amusements to write histori- 
cal tables, and when not more than twelve or thirteen one of 
his favorite plans was, when he was old enough for the 
undertaking, and had acquired the necessary knowledge, to 
write a Universal History, the plan of which he had conceived 
on a very comprehensive scale, and he used to delight to enter 
into the details of all its intended execution. 

The Romances of History by Henry Neale, Scott's Novels 
and Shakspeare's Historical Plays, doubtless, increased his 
taste for historical studies, which was always a very marked 
one during his life. 

When he was rather more than eight years of age, his 
grandfather, Mr. James [Mercer] Garnett, having engaged 
the services of a competent teacher, opened an Academy for 
boys at Elmwood, his own residence and Muscoe's home. This 
gave Muscoe an opportunity of mingling with boys of his 
own age and sharing their studies, but he was so much ad- 
dicted to his own pursuits, and so fond of the company of his 
mother and his family, that his intercourse with the boys had 
much less influence over his character and habits than could 
possibly have been anticipated, and he always retained a 
marked individuality of character. As a proof of his zeal for 
acquiring knowledge, it may be mentioned that he read vol- 
untarily during his leisure hours a very voluminous and tedious 
historical work, Rollin's Roman History, when he was not 
more than ten years of age, and continued without intermis- 
sion to follow out his own plans for self-improvement. 



8 Biographical Sketch 

When the Academy for boys was broken up at Elmwood, 
he continued to reside there and was instructed by private 
teachers with two or three other boys. He was, therefore, 
never removed from home influences until he went to the 
University of Virginia, when he was rather more than seven- 
teen years of age, and where, though he remained only a year 
and was detained at home by sickness for some weeks, he 
graduated in Mathematics, Greek, Latin, French and German. 
An extract from one of his letters, written whilst he was at 
the University, will best explain the nature and extent of his 
views on self-education. 

'I shall continue my general studies without reference to 
any particular profession for at least twelve months and prob- 
ably longer. Of course, then, my three branches of study 
will be history, metaphysics, and Belles Lettres. I shall frame 
an extensive course of study in each, and the books may be 
in any of the five languages I am acquainted with. So by 
reading authors in the original, my knowledge of the language 
will be kept up and improved. History I will study not as 
a mere amusement, but philosophically. I will study it in con- 
nection with Political Economy and the general doctrines of 
government, and as an illustration of the science of the mind, 
in short, as "philosophy teaching by example." By metaphy- 
sics I mean the whole philosophy of the mind, whether con- 
sidered individually or in masses, in its most extensive sense. 
In Belles Lettres I will study the great poets and critics, and 
view their masterpieces not only as sources of enjoyment, but 
as works of art, and examine the principles which direct their 
composition. In a word, I mean to study in these Belles Let- 
tres what the Germans call Aesthetics. And furthermore, I 
shall accustom myself to express my reflections on what I 
read in writing. This will force me to reflect, fix what I read 
in my memory, and assist me to form a style in writing. Now, 
look at the advantages of this plan. I am anxious to become 
well acquainted with the languages, and this plan will cer- 
tainly make me so. For, if I read Shakspeare, so will I Homer 
and Gothe. If I read Clarendon, so will I Sismondi and 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 9 

Tacitus, and if I study Bacon, so will I Plato. This plan 
too embraces everything but mathematics in its connection 
with the natural sciences, and the sciences themselves. But 
these can easily be put in. It may be objected that it is so 
extensive that it would require a long time to do it any justice. 
I reply that I can stop whenever I find it necessary, and that, 
as to its requiring so much time and labor, a thorough edu- 
cation is not be attained without these. I think, in making 
out a course of reading, the best plan is to put down the very 
best books we know, without considering whether we have 
them or not, and also to make the course very thorough with- 
out noticing how long it would require to go through it. Then 
we can afterwards modify it to suit our case.' 

There was an interval now of two years spent at home, 
during which he endeavored assiduously to carry out his views 
of self-education such as are expressed in the above extract 
from his letter, and though his views were too comprehensive 
to be thoroughly carried out in practice, his reading was 
various and extensive, and the studies to which his attention 
was chiefly directed were so thoroughly digested and syste- 
matised in his mind that he could apply the knowledge he 
possessed to any subject he wished. During this time he paid 
two or three visits to Washington, where he took great de- 
light in the access to books which the Congress Library afford- 
ed him, and the opportunities of attending the debates in 
Congress. 

At the expiration of two years he returned to the Uni- 
versity of Virginia for the purpose of attending Judge Tucker's 
Law Lectures. In the home of this gentleman he found a 
second home; to his intercourse with Judge Tucker's family 
and the warm friendship formed with one of his sons, it 
may be attributed that his time passed off so pleasantly that 
he often said in after years he looked back upon this year as 
one of the happiest of his life. 

He entered upon the practice of his profession soon after 
his return home, where he determined to reside, and attended 
the county courts in which he practised regularly, studying 



10 Biographical Sketch 

conscientiously whatever cases he undertook and giving much 
satisfaction to his clients, but country practice did not afford 
sufficient stimulus to his mind to awaken a. very strong in- 
terest in his profession, and his time was much occupied by 
pursuits more congenial to his tastes and habits. At this 
period of his life he was fond of agriculture, both as a study 
and an occupation ; indeed, the earnest and reflective character 
of his mind always blended study with his occupation ; he cul- 
tivated Belles Lettres not only as an amusement but as a 
study, applying the principles of philosophical criticism to the 
masterpieces of the best authors, but his especial delight was 
always in historical studies, which he conducted in the manner 
indicated in the extract from his letter, in which he lays down 
the plan he designed to pursue in reading history. He ac- 
quired such an extensive, connected and systematic knowledge 
of history as to add rich and varied stores to the furniture 
of his mind, enabling him to find apt and striking illustrations 
from the past of present and passing events. He was a warm 
admirer of Niebuhr, and derived many valuable lessons as to 
the manner in which history should be studied and applied from 
the writings of this author. 

German literature opened up to him many new fields of 
thought in which he delighted to expatiate ; the depth of 
thought to be found in the celebrated writers of this language, 
their habits of extensive and accurate research, their philoso- 
phical manner of treating the subjects upon which they wrote, 
were peculiarly fitted to excite the admiration of a mind such 
as his, and exercise a strong influence upon his modes of 
thinking and mental training. 

One of his first publications was a Review on Heeren's 
Ancient History. It appeared first in The Southern Magazine, 
edited by Mr. Edmund Ruffin, and at once excited notice and 
admiration; it was republished in The Southern [Literary] 
Messenger. He wrote also a Review of the Life of Calhoun, 
and a Review of Paget's Hungary and Transylvania, both of 
which appeared in The Southern [Literary] Messenger [the 
latter in the Nos. for January and February, 1844]. 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett ii 

The rich materials he possessed for writing in his varied 
stories of information upon man}^ important and interesting 
subjects, the trains of thought to which they had given rise 
in his mind, and the power he possessed of expressing his 
thoughts not only forcibly and accurately, but also beautifully 
when occasion required it, made his friends regret that he 
did not make more frequent use of his pen, but the very high 
standard of excellence in composition he had formed was one 
of the chief causes [why] he did not write more, as it was 
difficult for him to believe that his efforts came up to their 
requirements. He had many literary plans which were never 
executed, to the regret of those who knew his capacities and 
acquirements most intimately, and who believed that he could 
have adorned and illustrated any subject to which he gave 
his attention. 

Though he was always an interested observer of public af- 
fairs, and became, as soon as he formed any political opinions, 
a strong opposer of Northern incroachments and the Northern 
school of politics and a warm champion of Southern Rights, 
he made no attempt to enter public life, nor published anything 
upon political subjects until the winter of 1850. At this period 
he wrote "The Union, Past and Present [Future]," and the 
publication of this pamphlet was the commencement of a new 
era in his life. From this time his attention was more closely 
directed to political subjects, and his desire to enter public 
life increased. It was in the summer of 1850 that he delivered 
an oration at the University of Virginia at a meeting of the 
Alumni. 

His entrance on public life was as a member of the Con- 
vention which met in Richmond [in 1850]. As Mr. Tucker 
is intimately acquainted with all that relates to his political 
career, it is useless to dwell on the subject, and I will, there- 
fore, add only a few more observations upon some of the 
traits for which he was distinguished from childhood.^ A 
love of truth, a sense of honor, a contempt for all that is mean 

1 This allusion is to the fact that his friend, Hon. John Randolph 
Tucker, proposed writing a sketch of his life which was never fulfilled. 



12 Biographical Sketch 

and base, characterised him even as a child. A love of the 
beautiful seemed natural to him, and was always a source of 
exquisite delight. He was always a firm believer in the 
truth of Revealed Religion, and a champion for it when as- 
sailed. The purifying influences of the Gospel of Jesus Christ 
seemed to exert an increasing influence over his character and 
life until its close. The metaphysical and political aspects of 
Religion had always peculiar attractions for him from his 
earliest years. As a proof of these tastes it may be mentioned 
that Coleridge's writings and Jeremy Taylor's sermons were 
among his favorite works on Theological subjects.' 

The following extract shows the seriousness of the youth 
when not yet nineteen years of age. Extract from a letter writ- 
ten from the University of Virginia, 1839: 

"And, indeed, as I grow older, and direct myself more 
and more, I feel that I shall meet the common fate of man, 
which I had one day hoped to escape, — to grow more alone 
as I grow older. I have an undefinable dread too of the bur- 
dens, the cares, the responsibilities of life, which weighs much 
upon my mind. And then, too, when I look back on the bril- 
liant hopes with which I set out when a child, and watch how 
they have faded from year to year, it all makes me feel very 
sad. Even now what great things I would gladly attain, and 
yet the thought of the immense effort necessary, the intense 
and unwearying endeavor, and striving, appals me, and after 
all, if these efforts be in vain ! It almost disposes me to give 
up all, and hope to find my pleasures in watching the clouds, 
sowing my corn, going from county court to county court, till 
the county bench becomes a refuge for my gray hairs. All 
these things weigh on my mind very much, and I feel a deep 
regret for what is not so easily described, I mean the passing 
away of the freshness and brightness of boyhood, for, though 
I am not an old man, yet the boy has passed into the youth, 
and I feel sorry that the youth is passing into the man. 

You admire and appreciate that Ode of Wordsworth's, 
when he describes the 'glory' whose faded colors I so much 
regret (I believe that it is called "Intimations of Immortality, 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 13 

from [Recollections of] Early Childhood"), and you will not 
accuse me of affectation when I say that I feel the 'fading' 
there described." 

When Muscoe Garnett was about eight years of age, his 
grandfather opened a boys' school at Elmwood, chiefly for 
the education of his grandson. This school was taught by 
teachers employed for that purpose, Mr. Garnett attending 
to business matters, conducting family prayers, and delivering 
occasional lectures to the boys, a volume of which was pub- 
lished in 1830, containing four lectures. A girls' school had 
previously been conducted at Elmwood by Mrs. Garnett and 
her daughters, to which Mr. Garnett delivered a series of 
lectures on Female Education, which were published in 1824 
and 1825, and went through four editions. 

The late Hon. B. Johnson Barbour, who attended the boys' 
school in 1829, being a schoolmate there of Muscoe Garnett, 
has left some reminiscences of his school days in a letter to 
the writer written in 1885. He says of Mr. Garnett: "Mr. 
Garnett's presence was very imposing, tall, well proportioned, 
with a fine eye, a full head of gray hair, neatly brought to- 
gether at the back in a queue, which was the more striking 
from the fact that that style of dressing the hair had nearly 
gone out of vogue" and of Mrs. Garnett: "I cannot forbear 
from paying a deserved tribute to Mrs. Garnett. I still cherish 
her memory with love and gratitude. During my whole stay 
at Elmwood she was indeed a mother to me, chiding me gently 
when in fault, encouraging me in every way to press forward, 
calling me to her chamber to read a portion of the Scriptures, 
and afterwards whatever there might be of interest in the 
newspapers." He adds of "Elmwood" : "I need not attempt 
any description of Elmwood. I will only say that it has 
suggested some of the fine old English houses to me, and for 
years after I lived there, when I would be reading an English 
novel, Elmwood, with its fine hall, its library and parlor, its 
corridors and general spaciousness, would rise up before me." 
Mr. Barbour also pays a warm tribute to his friend and school- 
mate, M. R. H. Garnett, with whom he continued in bonds 
of friendship until Muscoe Garnett's death. 



14 Biographical Sketch 

After some years of home education under tutors, and un- 
der the direction of his mother and aunts, studying ancient 
and modern languages, mathematics, history and general litera- 
ture, Muscoe Garnett entered the University of Virginia in 
the fall of 1838 at seventeen years of age. The excellence 
of his preparation may be inferred from the fact that at the 
close of this session he graduated in Latin, Greek, mathema- 
tics, French and German, which course used to be known be- 
fore the War of 1861 as "the green ticket.'' Had he re- 
turned the next session, he could readily have completed the 
course for the degree of Master of Arts, the only academic 
degree then given at the University besides the degree of 
Graduate in a School. He did not, however, return to the 
University the following session, but prepared to pursue a 
private course of reading and study at home for the next two 
years. The spirit in which this course was pursued may be 
seen from his letter quoted above in the sketch by his aunt. 
While many young men might not profit as much by a course 
of private study as by a college curriculum, such was his 
mind and such were his habits, that the result showed that 
this was best for him. For a young man of eighteen to twenty, 
with a good previous preparation, it may be a question whether 
it is not best to let him follow the bent of his own mind, for, 
after all, such self-education may be the best education, 
especially when it is as intelligently planned as the above- 
quoted letter shows that his was. 

A letter from his uncle, the late Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, to 
his sister relating to her son, quoted in Miss M. T. Hunter's 
"Memoir" of her father (pp. 82 ff.), shows that it is best in his 
opinion to devolve responsibility upon a young man as soon 
as he is able to bear it; and the letter following (pp. 85 ff.), 
written to his nephew during his law course at the University, 
shows his deep interest in him and the excellence of the ad- 
vice that he from time to time gave him. After these two 
years of private study at home, laying up a stock of physical 
health as well as making mental acquirements, Muscoe Gar- 
nett returned to the University of Virginia in the fall of 1841 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 15 

and attended the lectures on Law of Professor Henry St. 
George Tucker, graduating with the degree of Bachelor of 
Law at the close of that session. He became very intimate in 
the family of Professor Tucker, and especially with his son, 
the late Hon. John Randolph Tucker, two years his junior, 
forming a friendship that was severed only by death. 

It was at this time that a short-lived periodical, known as 
The Collegian, was conducted by the students, and Muscoe 
Garnett was one of its editors. In Vol. IV., No. 2, for No- 
vember, 1 84 1, will be found an article by the late John R. 
Thompson, well known in later life as a journalist and 
litterateur, descriptive of the five editors, Muscoe Garnett be- 
ing described under the name Emerald. Thompson writes 
of him as follows : "To begin with our indefatigable 
Emerald. He is a gentleman who is entitled to your most 
distinguished consideration. In person he is rather under the 
middle height. His hair resembles drifts of purest snow, al- 
beit he labors under the optical delusion that its hue is much 
darker. He dresses always in black, and although he boasts 
a connexion with the unterrified democracy, the gold chain 
which dangles ostentatiously from his neck would certainly in- 
spire a diflferent opinion. Plis conversation is instructive and 
diversified. At one time he discourses on the beauties of the 
dreamy writers of Germany ; at another he enters into an elo- 
quent and thrilling disquisition on the "Sovereignty of the Peo- 
ple," but his favorite theme is Italy. He is familiar with 
every "ruined arch and ivied wall" from Rome and Caracalla's 
Baths to Tivoli's romantic steep. Her dark-eyed daughters and 
her sunny skies are associated with his fondest dreams of the 
Poet Land. He dives deep into the mazes of her philosophy 
and literature and sighs to think that 

'In Venice, Tasso's echoes are no more,' 

and that the lyre of Ariosto is motionless forever. Emerald is 
our chairman and presides over the meetings of the Commit- 
tee with 'dignity blended with ease.' In his room he is generally 



i6 Biographical Sketch 

attired in a robe de chamhre of most flaming material, and in 
his ordinary positions, exhibits an attitudinising elegance 
which Henry Pelham might have envied. Tobacco he loudly 
inveighs against, and, when talking on that subject, oites 
numerous instances of many unfortunate individuals whose 
sudden and lamentable death is to be attributed to its use." 

In this Number "M. R. H. G." wrote the leading article on 
'Poets and Poetry,' and one entitled 'A Winter Evening,' also 
five eight-line stanzas entitled 'Lines,' and beginning: 

'The dove her plaintive note prolongs 

From pine groves far away ; 
The birds their morning choral songs 

Awake at spring of day.' 

In the only other Number accessible to the writer, that for 
January, 1842, "M. R. H. G." seems to have drawn upon his 
home talent, as it opens with a letter ''To the Editors of The 
Collegian" signed "Oliver Old School," the well known signa- 
ture of his grandfather, James Mercer Garnett, of "Elmwood," 
in the Southern Literary Messenger, a prose article by his 
aunt, Miss Martha F. Hunter, entitled "Historical Scene from 
the Reign of the Empress Maria Theresa, translated from the 
German, for The Collegian," and certain lines by this lady en- 
titled "The Hour to Die," and "The Enchanter's Invitation." 

Muscoe Garnett graduated in Law at the close of this ses- 
sion, July, 1842, in the same class with the late Hon. John S. 
Barbour, Hon. Edward C. Burks, Col. H. Coalter Cabell, Maj. 
George W. Carr, Hon. Thomas Croxton, Hon. William J. 
Robertson, Col. John Scott, Col. William Watts, and others, 
twenty-six in all. 

One of his most intimate friends at the University was, as 
stated above, John Randolph Tucker, son of the Professor of 
Law, Henry St. George Tucker, and a correspondence be- 
tween the two extending from this year (1842) to 1853 has 
been preserved. Most of these letters are of too intimate a 
character for publication, but citations from a few may be 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 17 

made in order to show the estimation in which Mr. Garnett 
was held. The following brief letter will be given in full : 

"Winchester, July 6, 1849. 

"My dear Aluscoe : 

"I have just learned by letter from our old friend Dick 
Noland, whose penchant for you is unsurpassed, that the new 
Chair of History and Literature has been erected at the Uni- 
versity." He writes most passionately (in the French sense of 
the term) for your appointment. Need I tell you, my well be- 
loved, that I would rather you should have it than all others 
in the world. But will you take it? The two lines of dis- 
tinction are before you. Which will you take? Political or 
literary distinction? I cannot advise as yet, without hearing 
from you. Let me hear. Let me see you in order to my 
hearing properly & fully. T believe you could get it. 

I hear also that you are the orator [i. e., of the Society of 
the Alumni]. Glad am I to hear so. And I am your alternate. 
Glad also to be just behind you, when the association does 
me an honour, which my occupancy of the first position would 
^e^•er give me. 

Write soon. In haste. 

Your own friend, 

J. R. Tucker." 

Mr. Garnett did not seem to approve of the suggestion of a 
professorship of History and Literature for himself, as Mr. 
Tucker's next letter of July 24th, 1849, shows. He writes: 
"One thing, however, before advancing. You seem to have 
given up the idea of the merely literary life, and to have be- 
come enamoured of the politico-literary. Eh! hien, as you will. 
But what do you mean by going to practise law in a city? 
Where ? Baltimore ? Not New York or any city north of Bal- 
timore, surely? The question is one full of interest, i^*, would 
you suit it? 2"^, will it suit you? 

- This was premature, as this Chair was not finally established until 
1858. 



i8 Biographical Sketch 

"If it be any Northern city or even Baltimore, I would say 
not. If it be Richmond or a Southern city, it is more probable. 
This much for the i^*^ question. As to the second, I doubt 
as to any, for the purpose you propose. Practise law ! You 
do not like it, and in all human probability never would. There 
is too much of the merely plausible, of the technically ingenious, 
of the ad captatidum, in the practise of law to suit your taste, 
if not the order of your mind. Nor do I depreciate you at all. 
That is a higher order of mind which cannot deceive itself, and 
which is consorted with a heart which refuses to deceive 
others. Now, my own idea is that it would not suit you to 
devote your life and talents to the pursuit of a profession 
like that of the bar. To do it in a city requires incessant, 
persevering, exclusive devotion to its study. In your present 
situation, or even in mine, time is allowed to some other duty, 
but in a city success only waits on exclusiveness of attention 
to the profession of your choice. Would that suit you? But 
you may look to political preferment in a city. 'Choose you 
this day whom you will serve.' In a city politics and law will 
not mingle with success in the latter. It is impossible. It re- 
sults from the necessity of that exclusiveness above-mentioned. 
Then, if Politics be your object, flee a city, the most tainted and 
corrupted air for pure political aspirations like your own, that 
ever was selected. You may expect the oak to grow in the 
dark cells of the Penitentiary, but never hope to see the pure, 
and honest, politician thrive in the heated and putrid at- 
mosphere in which alone can flourish the political rabble of 
a city. Upon the whole of this matter let me have a talk 
with you before you decide. Come here and let me see you.'' 

Immediately after graduation he opened his law office 
at Loretto, Essex county, the Post Office nearest to "Elm- 
wood," and continued to reside there until after the death of 
his grandfather in April, 1843, when he and his mother, as 
stated above, made their home at "Fonthill," the residence 
of his uncle, the late Hon. R. M. T. Hunter. For some years 
he devoted himself to law and literature, of which the latter 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 19 

seems to have accorded best with his tastes. He wrote chiefly 
review articles, the titles of some of which are given in the 
above-quoted sketch by his avmt. 

He was a great admirer of Mr. Calhoun and a supporter of 
his views of Southern Rights, the continued aggressions on 
which by Northern politicians were creating the gravest ap- 
prehensions. His review of the "Life" of Calhoun, referred 
to above a short sketch of whose life from 181 1 to 1843 ^^^ 
been prepared by the Hon. R. M. T. Hunter — will show his 
own political opinions, from which he never deviated. His 
review of Paget's "Hungary and Transylvania" (2 Vols., Lon- 
don, 1839), published in The Southern and Western Literary 
Messenger and Rcviezv, as it was then called (Vol XH., Nos. 
1 and 2, January and February, 1846), under the editorship 
of the late Benjamin B. Minor, Esq., will give an example of 
his literary style, which was pure, smooth and flowing, easy 
and polished, a model of its kind. 

Thus he continued his self-education, reading and writing, 
and laying up those stores of knowledge and learning which 
stood him in good stead when he entered later upon political 
life. 

It was in the year 1850, before he was thirty years of age, 
that we have Mr. Garnett's first printed address, delivered 
before the Society of Alumni of the University of Virginia on 
June 29th, 1850. It is in this address that we first see the re- 
sults of his literary and political training. 

It shows the ardent devotion of the alumnus to his Alma 
Mater, the pride of the citizen in his State, which was to be 
the eoryphaeus of that chorus of Southern States that was 
eventually to be the leader of the World. But alas ! physical 
power was to overthrow moral and intellectual. Scarce four- 
teen months after Muscoe Garnett's death all these visions 
were ruthlessly shattered, and even then "coming events cast 
their shadows before." 

It was in this year that his principal pamphlet was pub- 
lished on "The Union, Past and Future : How It Works and 
How to Save It. By a Citizen of Virginia (Charleston, 



20 Biographical Sketch 

1850)." This is a calm and well-reasoned discussion of the 
political and economic relations between the Northern and the 
Southern States since the foundation of the government, that 
is, during the preceding sixty years (1790-1850), supporting 
its statements with respect to the economic relations by some 
half-dozen tables taken from the reports of the Secretary of 
the Treasury, and other official documents. His view of the 
political relations may be seen from the opening paragraph : 

"The time has come when it behooves every Southern man 
to consider the best means of preserving the Union which he 
loves, and the rights and honor which are yet dearer. Sixty 
years have passed since the Northern and Southern States 
entered into a treaty for the common defence and general wel- 
fare. We joined that league as equals : its strictly defined 
powers were to be exercised for the equal good of all the 
parties, and its benefits and burdens were to be equally shared. 
But our allies at the North have grown strong under the fos- 
tering protection of this great treaty, and are no longer content 
with the equal conditions upon which it was formed. They 
have perverted it from its original character, not only wield- 
ing the granted powers for sectional and oppressive purposes, 
but assuming every doubtful power for their exclusive ad- 
vantage. 

"In this spirit they have advanced far in a series of 
measures, which, if unresisted, must end in the overthrow of 
our slave institutions. But it cannot be doubted that a free 
people, still untamed by the yoke of oppression and the stamp 
of superiority, will resist such assaults. The South has at 
stake, not merely the fourteen hundred millions of dollars, 
the value of her slave property, but all of honor and of hap- 
piness that civilization and society can give. To count the 
means of resistance, the relative strength of the opponents, 
the value of what we must hazard, and the surest ways of 
preserving the Union in its original equality, is the object of 
this Essay." 

These quotations show the danger to be apprehended, even 
in 1850. from the political discussions between the Northern 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 21 

and the Southern States, the continual aggression of the North 
upon the South on account of slavery, and the natural resist- 
ance on the part of the South to a violation of her Constitu- 
tional rights. The bulk of the pamphlet is taken up with the 
discussion of the disadvantages of the Union to the South from 
an economic point of view, and the manifest effort of the 
North "to convert this Federal Union into a grand consolidated 
State, on the French model, where the numerical majority 
might have absolute sway." 

This tendency has progressed since the War Between the 
States and the liberation and enfranchisement of the negroes — 
itself a fulfillment of the prophecies previously made — so that 
even now the proposition is discussed in Congress to deprive 
the Southern States of electoral votes, because, forsooth, 
negroes are deprived of votes, which, in the opinion of the 
majority in Congress, they ought to cast, thus importing an en- 
tirely new principle into legislation. The illegal enfranchise- 
ment of the negroes should be sufficient, but the end is not yet. 

The pamphlet contains many truths, and then was the time 
for secession, when the South was stronger and proportionately 
better able to maintain her "Equality and Independence," but 
the "numerical majority" proved too strong for her. 

A communication in The Union, a Democratic paper of 
Washington, D. C, said of this pamphlet: "It is filled with 
profound thought and powerful argument, which at the present 
time commend themselves to every patriotic heart which de- 
sires the preservation of the Union and the restoration of kind 
feelings between the two sections of our country. A general 
consideration of this essay will not only diffuse light and in- 
formation amongst the community, but will show most clearly 
the indispensable necessity of restoring repose to the public 
mind. As sincere friends of the Union — as most ardently 
desirous of giving quiet to the agitated feelings of the coun- 
try — we recommend to every one to read and circulate it. 
* * * The facts and statistics are faithfully arrayed, and 
will well repay a most thoughtful perusal." 

The extracts from Mr. Garnett's pamphlet show his 
views on the burning questions of the day, especially his 



22: Biographical Sketch 

firm determination to resist all Northern aggressions upon 
slavery, such as the Wilmot proviso and cognate measures, 
even at the risk of a severance of the Union. If Southern 
men could not settle freely in the common territory of the 
Union with their property of all kinds, without any restric- 
tion, of what good was the Federal Union to them? They 
were not willing to submit to a circumscription of their rights 
in any respect, and the manifest tendency of all restrictive 
measures proposed by the Northern States was to confine 
slavery to the States in which it already existed, and ultimately 
to extinguish it even there. This was plainly the object to 
which all these proposed measures looked, and the South pre- 
ferred to dissolve the partnerships which they had a perfect 
right to do, rather than submit. 

Mr. Garnett had, up to this time (1850), never 
held a political office, but he was now chosen a 
delegate to the Constitutional Convention that as- 
sembled in Richmond, Virginia, on October 14th, 1850, repre- 
senting the district composed of Essex, King and Queen, Mid- 
dlesex and Matthews counties, and having as his colleagues, 
James Smith, of King and Queen, and Muscoe Garnett, of 
lower Essex county, who, if at all related to him, was very 
distantly related. Mr. M. R. H. Garnett took a very active 
part in the deliberations of this Convention, especially in the 
discussion of the basis of representation, on which he delivered 
a notable speech. He strongly supported the mixed basis, for 
it was upon this question that the eastern and the western 
portions of the State were divided, the eastern portion favoring 
the mixed basis and the western portion, the white basis, the 
mixed basis allowing certain weight to the negroes, as in the 
U. S. Constitution. (See Appendix.) 

At the election succeeding the adjournment of the Con- 
stitutional Convention of 1850-51, Mr. Garnett was elected to 
the House of Delegates, and served continuously for five 
years. He was made chairman of the Committee of Finance, 
and there has been preserved a report of that committee 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 23 

submitted by him on February 4th, 1856, but it is not possible 
to go into the subject in any detail for want of necessary space. 
He was specially interested in financial matters, and became 
thoroughly conversant with them. He seems to have inherited 
his aptitude for these matters, for his uncle, the late Hon. 
Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter, United States and Confed- 
erate States Senator from Virginia, was for many years chair- 
man of the Committee of Finance in the United States Senate, 
and was specially prominent in framing the tariff bill of 1857. 
He favored a low tariff, but not one so low as to reduce 
the revenues of the country below its expenses ; nor did he 
believe in levying a tax upon consumers for the benefit of 
producers. 

In 1855 Mr. Garnett was appointed by the Governor a 
member of the Board of Visitors of the University of Vir- 
ginia, and served until 1859. He is said to have been largely 
instrumental in the establishment by this Board of the Chair 
of History and Literature in the University of Virginia, the 
first incumbent of which. Professor George F. Holmes, entered 
upon his duties in October, 1857. Mr. Garnett was deeply in- 
terested in the University. 

In the year 1856 the Democratic Representative from the 
First Virginia District, Hon. Thomas H. Bayly, died, and Mr. 
Garnett was looked to as a suitable candidate for the va- 
cancy. The District consisted at that time of the counties of 
Accomac, Elizabeth City, Essex, Gloucester, King and Queen, 
James City, Lancaster Mathews, Middlesex, New Kent, 
Northampton, Northumberland, Richmond, Warwick, West- 
moreland, York, and the City of Williamsburg, and the nomi- 
nating Convention met at the Courthouse of Mathews county 
on Wednesday, the 20th day of August, 1856. The result of 
the first ballot was as follows : 

Muscoe R. H. Garnett 1^938 

Robert L. Montague, 1,207^/2 

Richard A. Claybrook, 690 

J. B. Cosnahan (not in nomination),. . . . 365^ 

3-872 



24 Biographical Sketch 

Mr. Garnett, having received a majority of all the votes 
cast, was declared the nominee, and, on motion, the nomina- 
tion was made unanimous. At the election in November Mr. 
Garnett was duly elected over his opponent of the Know 
Nothing party. 

The Richmond Enquirer, as quoted in the Democratic 
Recorder, of Fredericksburg, of Sept. 8, 1856, said of the 
nominee : 

"Mr. Garnett was first distinguished as the author of a 
political pamphlet, which elicited immediate and universal ap- 
plause by its intense Southern spirit, the originality of its 
speculations, and the sound statesmanship which controlled 
its conclusions. It was the earliest and the ablest philosophical 
exposition of the relations of slavery to the Federal Govern- 
ment ; and as such gave the writer foremost rank among the 
rising men of the South. But it is not so much for this pro- 
duction, or his contributions to the Reviews, that Mr. Gar- 
nett is held in high esteem through the State. His reputation, 
in Virginia at least, rests on the more solid basis of an ap- 
proved ability in practical legislation. 

"The last session of our General Assembly was dis- 
tinguished by the discussion of some of the most profound 
and difficult problems in finance and general policy ; and in 
virtue of his position at the head of the leading committee, 
Mr. Garnett bore a conspicuous part in every debate. The 
promptitude of suggestion, the fertility of resource, the mature 
thought and ample information which he displayed, in col- 
lision, too, with some of the first minds of the State, were 
attested and applauded by men of all parties. 

It is compliment enough for one so fresh in public affairs, 
to say that he sustained himself in strenuous hand to hand 
debate with a person of the experience and ability of John 
B. Floyd. The contest between these gentlemen was worthy 
of any arena. Mr. Garnett certainly suffered no loss of 
credit, but (and it is a rare thing) he fully redeemed the 
reputation of his writings. * * * Mr. Garnett is known 
through the North as the most prominent and brilliant of 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 25 

that rising school of statesmen in the South who defend the 
institution of slavery on grounds of moral, social, and political 
expediency — of that school which, discarding the prejudices 
and rejecting the dogmas of an obsolete age, boldly claims 
for the civilization of the South the sanctions of a juster 
and truer philosophy. He is known, too, for that sort of 
ultraism which is unwilling to brook any further infringement 
of the Constitution and encroachment upon the rights of the 
South. 

The effect of the defeat of a person with this reputation and 
these opinions, at this particular crisis, will be to confirm 
the impression now so actively propagated in the North, that 
the people of Virginia are not so loyal to its institutions and 
so jealous of its rights as the papers and politicians repre- 
sent. And the effect of that pessimism would be to stimulate 
the fanaticism of the Abolitionists, and encourage them to 
still more violent assaults on the Constitution. * * * The 
people of that district owe it to themselves, to the State and to 
the South, to reinforce the ranks of the slavery champions in 
Congress with the best talent, the best energy, and the best 
spirit which they can press into the public service. We 
cannot doubt the election of Mr. Garnett." 

In consequence of this election in November, 1856, Mr. 
Garnett's political activity was transferred from the State 
Legislature to the halls of Congress, which he entered the fol- 
lowing month, Dec. i, 1856. The experience that he had had 
in the State Constitutional Convention, and in the Legislature, 
especially as chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means 
of the House of Delegates, was, doubtless, of great service 
to him in this larger field of legislation. Some half-dozen or 
more separate printed speeches delivered in the House of 
Representatives, have been preserved, but we can do no more 
than mention them here. 

The first that we have available is one on "Public Expendi- 
tures and the Tariff'," delivered on Feb. 14, 1857, about two 
months and a half after he took his seat. Here he advanced 
the views that he always held of economy in expenditures 



26 Biographical Sketch 

and a low tariff, the limitation of expenditures to the actual 
needs of the Government, and the reduction of the tariff to 
the demands of the revenue. This whole speech shows the 
Democratic position on the tariff, especially at that time when 
a reduction of duties was necessary to avoid piling up a surplus 
revenue. 

The arnounts a half-century ago were ridiculously small 
when compared to the colossal receipts and expenditures of 
the present day, but the principle of retrenchment and re- 
form was the same. It was no part of the office of govern- 
ment to assist individuals in amassing huge fortunes, and to 
levy taxes on the necessaries of life, which oppresses the poor 
and increases the inequality of wealth already existing. 

The principles of the Democratic party have remamed the 
same, and they have ever striven against the exorbitant duties 
which go from bad to worse, but the people are blind to their 
true interests, and the oppression of the poor by means of the 
tariff continues and will continue against all opposition. The 
following year, on March 22"*^, 1858, Mr. Garnett delivered a 
speech on the admission of Kansas into the Union under a 
Constitution which authorized its admission with slavery. 
He showed clearly that the anti-slavery feeling was at the bot- 
tom of the opposition to the admission of Kansas, while there 
was no opposition to the admission of Oregon and Minnesota, 
notwithstanding certain irregularities, because the Constitu- 
tions of these States forbade slavery. He asserted that the 
Senator from New York [Mr. Seward] "disclosed the true 
secret when he declared that it was a dynastic struggle between 
North and South whether another slave State could be ad- 
mitted into the Union," and he gave an interesting historical 
review of the issue. 

Less than two months later, on May 4th, 1858, Mr. Gar- 
nett spoke on the admission of Minnesota, opposing such ad- 
mission not on political grounds, but because of serious irregu- 
larities in the adoption of its Constitution. 

The enabling act permitted unnaturalized foreigners to 
vote ; it violated the compact entered into on the cession of 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 27 

the Northwest Territory in that five States had already been 
formed from it and now twenty thousand square miles more 
went to the formation of Minnesota; moreover, there were 
irregularities in the organization of the conventions, hence 
the Constitution was not the act of the people of Minnesota, 
even if it was afterwards adopted by the people; this act 
could not make that lawful which was previously unlawful. 
Again, the population did not justify the number of represen- 
tatives allowed to the State. Minnesota, therefore, had not 
complied with the enabling act and did not have a population 
that justified more than one representative, and such an amend- 
ment Mr. Garnett offered to the pending bill. He protested 
against allowing to Minnesota twice the power and influence 
given to his people. 

We have another speech on "Public Expenditures," de- 
livered by Mr. Garnett on February 14"^, 1859. He takes up the 
expenditures of the different departments, Army, Navy, Post- 
office, Public Lands, and others, and proposes reductions in 
them all, showing again his advocacy of retrenchment and re- 
form. Without going into details, which would be of no ser- 
vice at this day, we may quote his closing paragraph as show- 
ing the principles which actuated him in his Congressional 
career. He says : 

"There are but two modes of organizing parties. One 
is on principles — principles fixed and eternal ; the other is by 
patronage and expenditure and personal combinations. The 
State-rights Democratic party commenced its career with the 
foundation of the Government. It began on principle ; on 
the strict construction of the Constitution ; that Government 
should do as little, and that the individual should do as much, 
as possible. It has been a party of free trade, of low duties, of 
economy, of retrenchment, and of a strict construction of the 
Constitution. It is because it has been such a party that it 
has commanded the affections of the people of the country. 

My heart warms to its old banner inscribed with the names 
of many a glorious achievement and soiled with the smoke 
of many a gallant action ; warms to it when I remember that, 



28 Biographical Sketch 

under the auspices of that party, our country has grown from 
the few feeble settlements of 1789 to the magnificent Con- 
federacy in which we now live ; warms to it when I remem- 
ber that it laid down, in lygS-'gg, in my own old State, the 
chart of constitutional construction, which, amid all aberra- 
tions, it has ever returned to since ; when I remember that, 
despite the opposition of its foes, it added to our country the 
mouths of the Mississippi ; that it added Florida and Texas, 
and gave us the Pacific Coast. I thank it when I remember 
that, under its care, we have been gradually brought from a 
system of high duties, paper currency and of Government 
interference, to a system where we have a sound metallic cur- 
rency, and comparative free trade ; where our trade and com- 
merce, our imports and exports, have outstripped those of 
any other nation of the world. 

I value it for all these things ; and let me say to my friends 
of the Democratic party, that, if we once permit ourselves, 
for the sake of carrying this election or that election, in 
this State or the other State — ay, even in the old Keystone 
State itself — to desert our principles, and to become a pro- 
tectionist party, — when we depend for success, not upon prin- 
ciples, but upon expenditure — then the days of the party are 
numbered, and its mene, mene, tekel upharsin, are written on 
the wall. By adhering to principles, though we may be in 
the minority for a moment, we will ultimately control and 
carry the country with us, and command the destinies of the 
Confederacy and of the western hemisphere, till we shall have 
fulfilled that high mission on earth for which God designed our 
race." 

This speech also shows his steadfast adherence to the 
principles of the Democratic party, economy in expenses, low 
tariff, and strict construction of the Constitution. 

Mr. Garnett sometimes joined in brief remarks on bills 
before the House. On Jan. 15, i860, the Civil Appropriation 
bill being under consideration, he moved to amend the 21st 
amendment made by the Senate by adding thereto the follow- 
ing proviso : 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 29 

"Provided, That the opprobrium of American art, pur- 
porting to be an equestrian statue of Washington, shall be 
removed and melted down and the bronze sold to defray in 
part this appropriation," — on which he remarked as follows : 
"Mr. Chairman : In the last sixty-odd years the memory of 
the Father of his Country has been harassed by Fourth of 
July orations and by disgraceful statues and monuments all 
over this country, and by pictures such as that wretched daub 
which we see there in the corner of this Hall. Not many 
years ago we placed him in an almost naked condition out in 
these grounds to endure the hot sun of summer and the cold 
frosts of winter.* And not content with thus pillorying him 
in the public grounds, we have now mounted him on what 
purports to be a horse, but what any gentleman who has been 
accustomed to see horses will pronounce to be an intolerable 
beast. But not content with that, this so-called artist has 
placed him in a position in which it would be impossible for 
any rider to continue in his seat for two consecutive minutes. 
The horse is rearing, while the rider, instead of leaning for- 
ward, is falling back, about to pitch backwards over the thing 
intended for the horse's tail. I think it great ingratitude on 
the part of the American people to keep their "Father" in 
such a position any longer. That figure, sir, is a caricature 
of every lineament of his face, and every feature of his form ; 
and I do hope that Congress, if it means to pass this amend- 
ment at all, will, before they inclose this circle with an iron 
railing, take down this wretched abortion." 

"Mr. John Cochrane. I call for tellers on the Father 
of his Country. [Laughter]." 

"Mr. Garnett. I withdraw the amendment. The amend- 
ment of the Senate was non-concurred in." 

As showing his care for the purity of the English 
language, on another occasion he remarked : "I move to strike 
out the word 'donated' and insert the word 'given,' the word 
'donated' not being properly a word in the English language 
in that sense." 

* This extraordinary statue has been transferred to the Smith- 
sonian Institution. 



30 Biographical Sketch 

"The amendment was agreed to." 

Turning aside for the present from Mr. Garnett's political 
and economic speeches, we may glance at his private life. We 
have already stated that, after the death of his grandfather, 
Hon. James Mercer Garnett, he and his mother had removed 
from "Elrnwood" and taken up their residence at "Fonthill," 
the home of his uncle, Hon. Robert M. T. Hunter. "Elm- 
wood" meanwhile came into the possession of his mother and 
himself, and during the fifties considerable expense was in- 
curred in its repair and improvement. (See cut.) 

It was a handsome brick dwelling of two stories and base- 
ment, containing wide halls running from front to back, that 
is, approximately, south to north, and from east to west, 
along the front of the house, the first floor containing, to the 
right of the main hall, a parlour and a very large dining-room, 
and to the left, a library and a large chamber. The second 
story contained a hall running from east to west over the 
front hall on the first story, and some half-dozen spacious 
chambers. A wide staircase to the left of the main hall con- 
nected the two stories. 

When Mr. Garnett remodeled the dwelling about i856-'57, 
he removed this staircase and placed it in a tower to the 
west, or left of the main entrance, which enlarged the upper 
hall and improved the external appearance of the house, al- 
though it destroyed the exact rectangular form. He also im- 
proved the porches both front and back, and at the east and 
west ends. 

The estate contained about one thousand acres of low 
grounds and forest land, and was situated on the second rise 
from the Rappahannock River, some six or seven miles dis- 
tant, and from the hill on which the house was built there 
was a beautiful view of the river, both up and down. A large 
garden, with a family burying-ground adjoining it, was back 
of the house. 

The house was built by Mr. Garnett's great-grandfather, 
Muscoe Garnett, and was completed just before the Revolu- 
tionary War, all except the porches, the construction of which 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 31 

was interfered with by the outbreak of the war. It is said 
that the bricks were imported from England, but this will 
not be vouched for, as mistakes of this kind have been made 
in respect to the old colonial churches. 

Vawter's Church, built in 1731, about three miles distant, 
was always attended by the family, and of this church the 
Hon. James Mercer Garnett was a vestryman, a delegate to 
the Diocesan Convention, and often a delegate to the General 
Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 

On July 26*'', i860, Mr. M. R. H. Garnett married Miss 
Mary Picton Stevens, daughter of Edwin A. Stevens, Esq., 
of Hoboken, New Jersey. There were two children born from 
this marriage, James Mercer, born July 7. 1861, and Mary 
Barton Picton, born May 28, 1863. 

The state of the country, however, did not long permit 
a quiet enjoyment of his married life. 

The couple resided at "Elmwood" except during the ses- 
sion of Congress following their marriage, when they spent 
the winter in Washington.* 

The election of Lincoln in November, i860, increased the 
apprehensions already felt by the Southern people. It con- 
clusively settled their exclusion from the territories, and ren- 
dered probable speedy interference with their domestic in- 
stitutions. The Union would no longer be a union of States 
with equal rights, as intended by the Constitution, but a Union 
in which the numerically stronger would rule, and the weaker 
would have no security for their rights but the arbitrary will 
of the stronger. 

South Carolina had already declared that the election of 
Lincoln would in itself constitute a sufficient justification for 
her withdrawal from a Union in w^hich she could no longer 
enjoy her equal rights. She, therefore, repealed the ordinance 
adopting the Federal Constitution and took her position as an 
independent State on December 20th, i860. Six other States 
speedily took similar action, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mis- 

* See Mrs. Clay-Clopton's book, "A Belle of the Fifties," p. 50. 



33 Biographical Sketch 

sissippi, Louisiana, and Texas, so that by February ist, 
1 86 1, seven States had formally withdrawn from the Federal 
Union, in the exercise of their sovereign rights, as declared 
in the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798- '99, which 
had been for over sixty years the tenets of the Jefifersonian 
Democracy. These States, by the mouths of their delegates 
appointed for the purpose, assembled in Montgomery, Ala- 
bama, on February 4th, 1861, and formed a union of the Con- 
federate States, choosing Jefferson Davis as President, and 
Alexander H. Stephens as Vice-President. 

The Virginia Legislature invited a Congress of all the 
States to meet in Washington on February 4th, 1861, the day 
of the meeting of the Congress of the Confederate States, to 
take into consideration the state of the country. 

This Congress was presided over by Ex-President John 
Tyler, of Virginia, venerable from age, dignity, and official 
position, and it deliberated for about three weeks (February 
4th-27th) on the present alarming condition of affairs. 

The Crittenden resolutions, which had been proposed in the 
Senate by Senator Crittenden of Kentucky, or some similar 
terms, were approved by the Southern men, but the Northern 
men were opposed to all compromise of the questions at issue, 
so that the deliberations of the Congress resulted in nothing 
acceptable. 

The Virginia Legislature also called a State Convention 
to meet on February 13th, and to decide upon the course to 
be taken by the State. 

Virginia had voted for Bell and Everett, candidates of the 
Constitutional Union party, and when the Convention as- 
sembled, the majority was composed of Union men. Senti- 
ment in the State, however, had greatly changed since the 
election in November, i860, and when the Convention met 
on February 13th, 1861, many who had voted for Bell and 
Everett were now in favor of immediate secession. Mr. Gar- 
nett was not an original member of this Convention, but was 
chosen to fill a vacancy from Essex and King and Queen 
counties, caused by the resignation of the former member. 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 33 

He discharged his duties as Representative in Congress until 
the secession of the State on April 17th, 1861. He had, how- 
ever, expressed his views on the questions at issue, which 
were in favor of immediate secession from the Union by Vir- 
ginia and the resumption of her independent so\ereignty. 
Along with other Southern Senators and Representatives he 
had signed early in January a paper indicating the course that 
the South should pursue. He delivered in Congress during 
this winter two speeches, one on January i6th on "The State 
of the Union," and the other on February 20th, on "The 
Bill for the Increase of Vessels in the Navy," which show 
clearly his position. 

Events moved rapidly during the winter of 1861. One 
month later, on February 20th, Mr. Garnett delivered in Con- 
gress the last printed speech that has been preserved. It was 
on the bill for the increase of vessels in the navy, to which 
he offered the following amendment : ''Provided, That the 
said ships shall not be used to execute the Federal laws, or 
aid other land and naval forces in executing the Federal 
laws, in States claiming to be without the Federal jurisdiction," 
which amendment he supported in a brief speech. 

During this speech he engaged in a colloquy with certain 
other members of the House, one of whom, Mr. Anderson, 
of Kentucky, remarked : 'T say that I am still for the Union, 
and I ask the gentleman whether he is or not," to which Mr. 
Garnett replied : "I am in favor of the State of Virginia 
seceding from this Northern Union at the earliest possible 
moment." He argued that "this executing the laws, as you 
call it, is coercion, and coercion is war" ; "and while the sands 
of life are still running for this Congress, the question of 
peace or w^r is in your hands." 

Mr. Garnett was very right in his position. The Southern 
States that had already seceded held that they were out of the 
Union, and that the Federal Government had nothing more to 
do with them. They had withdrawn their ratification of the 
Federal Constitution, — as they had a perfect right to do, — 
and were now foreigners as far as the Federal Union was 



34 Biographical Sketch 

concerned. Then was the time for the Virginia Convention 
to have withdrawn from the Union instead of talking for two 
months and then withdrawing after the poHcy of coercion 
had been determined upon. If Virginia and the other border 
States had then seceded, it is highly probable that there would 
have been no war, but their continual delay encouraged the 
Federal Government to think that they would not secede, and 
the policy of coercion was resolved upon. The firing upon 
Fort Sumter was an act of self-defence, but was seized upon 
as an excuse for a policy already decided on, and was used 
as a means of "firing the Northern heart," and of putting the 
South in a false position. 

Mr. Garnett argued that, if the independence of the Con- 
federate States were acknowledged, they might have peace, 
and might possibly keep the border slave States peaceably, 
but if not. Congress would inaugurate a war, — and open war, 
in which there was no doubt where the border States would 
stand. He repeated that he was in favor of the secession of 
Virginia, because he believed that it was "the best possible 
mode of preventing war and reconstructing a Union of 
equality." "But secession ofifers the best, if not the only 
chance for peace ; and peace, the only hope of reconstruction." 
He concluded with the remark : "The Sibylline books are 
nearly destroyed. Only one-third remain, and they contain 
the issues of peace and war. Choose ye between them ! We 
of the South desire peace, we desire friendship with you ; 
but choose which you may, the people of the South, and their 
brethren on the Southern border — brethren in heart, if not in 
name, ay, and many brave lovers of justice in the North, — 
stand ready to meet you in the name of the God of battles and 
of our fathers." 

The inaugural address of President Lincoln on March 4th, 
1861, instead of allaying, only increased the apprehensions 
of war, which was finally declared by his proclamation of 
April 15th, calling for troops from each of the States. This 
caused the Virginia Convention to hesitate no longer, and the 
ordinance of secession was passed on April 17th, 1861. 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 35 

The secession , of Virginia compelled her Senators and 
Representatives to withdraw from the U. S. Congress, and 
Mr. Garnett retired at once. 

As we have seen from the preceding speeches, he was in 
favor of the earlier secession of the State, but, as the majority 
of the Convention were Union men, they refused to take this 
action until troops were called for to coerce the seceding 
States, — a result that might have been foreseen, — when the 
State withdrew from the Union and cast her lot with the 
Confederate States. It is useless to speculate on what might 
have been, but the earlier secession of the border States might 
possibly have prevented war. 

Virginia appointed as her representatives in the Provisional 
Congress of the Confederate States, then in session at Mont- 
gomery, Ala., the Hons. Robert M. T. Hunter, William C 
Rives, John W. Brockenbrough, Waller R. Staples, and George 
D. Camden. Mr. Hunter presented the resolutions of the 
Virginia Convention, adopted April 27, 1861, inviting the au- 
thorities of the Confederate States to make Richmond the 
seat of government of the Confederacy, which invitation was 
duly accepted, and on June ist Richmond became the capital 
of the Confederate States and so continued until the end. 

On the resignation of Dr. R. H. Cox, the member of the 
Virginia Convention from the counties of Essex and King 
and Queen, Mr. Garnett was chosen to succeed him, and took 
his seat in the Convention on June 15th, 1861. (See Journal 
of Virginia Convention of 1861, p. 246.) On June 19th he 
submitted an ordinance to prohibit citizens of Virginia from 
holding office under the U. S. Government. His name ap- 
pears frequently in the votes on different measures, and he 
served on several committees. He was appointed on June 21st 
on a committee on the expediency of districting the State into 
Congressional districts ; on June 24th, on the Committee of 
Elections ; on a committee to which were referred an ordinance 
and a substitute providing for the organization of volunteers 
for special service in the northwestern part of the State ; and 
on June 28th, on a committee to authorize absent voters in 
the military service to vote at encampments. 



2,6 Biographical Sketch 

The Convention took a recess from July i to Nov. 13, 
1 86 1. On Nov. 16, 1861, Mr. Garnett voted for Robert L. 
Montague as President of the Convention to fill the vacancy 
occasioned by the resignation of Hon. John Janney. On the 
same day he offered a resolution to consider the proposed 
amendments of the State Constitution, which was laid on the 
table. 

After Nov. 19"', 1861, his name does not appear again as 
voting until Dec. 4*'', probably on account of absence, and the 
Convention adjourned sine die Dec. 6"^, 1861. 

While he was not a member of the Convention when the 
ordinance of secession was passed, it is believed that he signed 
it later. We have seen that, in his speech in Congress of 
Feb. 20th, he had announced himself in favor of the secession 
of Virginia ''at the earliest possible moment." He was not 
in favor of waiting until the inauguration of President Lin- 
coln, for he knew that each day's delay only made more prob- 
able the coercion of the State. As stated above, unanimous 
action on the part of the South by Jan. ist might have averted 
war, and even by Feb. ist the North imagined that there would 
be no further secession, and that Virginia and the other border 
States would still cling to the Union. Little did they know 
the spirit of Virginia which was largely in favor of secession, 
except in the northwestern counties. 

Mr. Garnett was elected in November, 1861, to represent 
the First Virginia District in the Confederate House of Repre- 
sentatives, and in the Journal of the Confederate Congress we 
find that on Feb. 21^', 1862, he qualified and took his seat. Also, 
Messrs. Pugh, of Alabama, Perkins, of Louisiana, and Gar- 
nett, of Virginia, were appointed on Oct. 2"'', 1862, a Commit- 
tee of Conference on disagreeing votes of the two Houses, and 
later, on April 13"', 1863, Messrs. Kenner, of Louisiana; Lyon, 
of Alabama, and Garnett, of Virginia, were appointed a simi- 
lar Committee of Conference on the bill to lay taxes for the 
common defence; on Dec. 7"\ 1863, Messrs. Garnett, of Vir- 
ginia, Chilton, of Alabama, and Swan, of Tennessee, were ap- 
pointed a committee to wait on the President, and notify him 
of the organization of Congress. 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 37 

On Feb. 25'*^, 1862, Mr. Garnett was appointed on the Com- 
mittee of Ways and Means, but on April 5th he moved that 
he be excused from serving on that committee, and on April 
Q*** he was appointed on the Committee on Military Affairs. 

He reported from that committee a bill to allow commuta- 
tion for deficiencies in rations, which was duly passed ; and later 
a bill to allow commutation for clothing to militia "in actual 
service of the Confederate States," which was amended and 
also passed. Later still he reported the same bill as amended 
by the Senate, changing the rate of commutation, and it was 
passed. 

It is not known why he preferred service on the Committee 
on Military Affairs to that on the Committee of Ways and 
Means, considering his familiarity with the latter subjects, 
but the facts are given as stated in the Journals. 

At the election in November, 1863, he was defeated for re- 
election by the Hon. Robert L. Montague, his opponent having 
received the soldier vote, which was preponderating, as a large 
portion of the First District was in the hands of the enemy. 

He continued to serve during his term, but in January, 
1864, while attending the Congress in Richmond, he was 
seized with typhoid fever, received leave of absence on account 
of sickness Feb. i^^, and died at "Elmwood" not long after 
reaching home, on Feb. 14''', 1864. 

The following resolutions were offered in the House of 
Representatives by one of his colleagues, Mr. Lyon, of Vir- 
ginia, and duly adopted : 

"Resolved, That we have heard with deep sorrow of the 
death of the Hon. M. R. H. Garnett, a member of this House, 
distinguished for his learning, ability, and integrity, and in 
testimony of respect for his memory, we will wear the usual 
badge of mourning for thirty days. 

"Resolved, That we tender to his bereaved widow our 
sincere sympathy in her suffering for the great loss which she 
and our country have sustained in the death of her distin- 
guished husband. 



38 Biographical Sketch 

"Rcsolz'cd, That the Speaker of this House communicate a 
copy of these resolutions to the widow of the deceased^and 
to the Senate. 

"Resolved, That, in further testimony of our respect for 
the memory of the deceased, this House will now adjourn." 

The death of Mr. Garnett was announced in the Senate 
on Feb. 17th, 1864, by Mr. Dalton, and the following resolu- 
tions of Senator Caperton, of Virginia, were adopted : 

"Resolved, That the Senate receives with sincere regret 
the announcement of the death of the Hon. Muscoe R. H. 
Garnett, late a member of the House of Representatives from 
the State of Virginia, and tenders to the relatives of the de- 
ceased the assurance of their sympathy with them under the 
bereavement they have been called to sustain. 

"Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate be directed 
to transmit to the family of Mr. Garnett a certified copy of 
the foregoing resolution." 

Mr. Garnett's remains were interred in the family grave- 
yard at "Elmwood." 

A portrait of him, presented by his daughter, Miss Mary 
B. P. Garnett, was unveiled in the Court House of Essex 
county at Tappahannock, on June 20th, 1898, on which oc- 
casion an address was delivered by his first cousin, Judge 
Theodore S. Garnett, of Norfolk, Virginia, commemorative of 
him, and of his uncle, Hon. R. M. T. Hunter. (See Southern 
Historical Society Papers, Vol. XXVH., 1899.) 

These portraits hang on the walls of the Court-room along- 
side of many other portraits of members of the Garnett family 
and other worthies of Essex county* 

The reviews and addresses, the reports and speeches, re- 
ferred to above, give illustrations of the character of Mr. 

* This custom of thus adorning the walls of the Court Houses in the 
several counties of his judicial district was inaugurated by Judge T. 
R. B. Wright, of Tappahannock, to preserve the memory of prominent 
men of the respective counties, and it deserves to be followed in every 
county in the State. 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 39 

Garnett's mind and of his favorite studies. Like many other 
Virginia country gentlemen, he devoted his leisure to the study 
of history, literature, and political science, of all of v^rhich 
he was very fond, and having based his studies on a thorough 
private school, academic, and legal education, he became expert 
in these subjects. Few young men have ever qualified them- 
selves so thoroughly for a political career, using the word 
"political" in its highest sense. His countrymen early ap- 
preciated his abilities and culture, sending him first to the 
Constitutional Convention of 1850, then to the State Legis- 
lature, and, as soon as a vacancy occurred, to the United 
States, — and after the secession of Virginia, — to the Confed- 
erate States House of Representatives. The highest political 
honors in the gift of his State were within his reach, and 
with the example of his distinguished uncle before him, it was 
reasonable to expect that he too would have represented the 
State in the Senate. 

His abilities were pre-eminent, and his qualifications ex- 
traordinary, as acknowledged by all with whom he came in 
contact. Though but of medium stature, his personal ap- 
pearance was exceedingly attractive. With light hair, almost 
white, blond complexion, bluish eyes, anci clear-cut, regular 
and refined features, and a massive head in proportion to his 
size, showing great intellectual power, he would have attracted 
attention in any company. His disposition was gentle, and 
his temper quick, but under easy control. Having been trained 
at home until he went to college, he was very fond of domes- 
tic life, and was the companion of his widowed mother until 
he entered upon political life, the affection and intimacy that 
existed between the two being much greater than is usual be- 
tween mother and son. This is remarkably illustrated in a 
series of letters that have been preserved, but the correspon- 
dence is of too intimate a character to allow of quotations. 
His married life was very happy, but of short duration, ex- 
tending over but little more than three and a half years. Dying 
at the early age of forty-two, he had already distinguished 
himself in his short public life, and had attained a reputation 



40 Biographical Sketch 

second to but few in his State. An ardent Virginian and a 
strong Southerner, he showed on all public occasions his de- 
votion to Virginia and the South, and did not hesitate to 
throw himself into the fray in defence of Southern principles. 
As may be seen from his speeches in Congress, he believed 
thoroughly in the right of secession, and thought, in the 
winter of 1861, that the time had arrived for the exercise of 
it. Like most public men of his time, he thought the subjuga- 
tion of the South impossible, notwithstanding the inequality in 
numbers of men and resources. It is bootless to inquire into 
the causes of that subjugation ; it is sufficiently explained by 
the words of the great leader of the Southern army, "Over- 
whelming numbers and resources," and if we still push the 
inquiry one step further, we may say that the stringent block- 
ade prevented the South from increasing those numbers and 
resources, and consequently from decreasing the inequality 
of four to one in the former and of at least ten to one in the 
latter. 



APPENDIX 



PRELIMINARY NOTE. 

The following extracts from the writings of the Hon. 
Muscoe R. H. Garnett, of Virginia, have been added to the 
"Biographical Sketch," which has appeared in the William and 
Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine for July and 
October, 1909, (Vol. XVIIL, Nos. i and 2), that those who 
read the sketch may have examples of his mental powers 
and oratorical ability. I think that they will agree with 
the writer that he was one of the ablest and most highly 
cultivated young men that the State has ever produced. 

His Alumni Oration, his pamphlet on "The Union : Past 
and Future," his speech in the Virginia Convention of 
1850 on the Basis Question, his Financial Report to the 
Virginia Legislature, 1856, and his speeches in Congress, 
i856-'6i, are good illustrations of his varied powers and 
his well-trained mind, in dealing with financial and political 
questions. His early death in the 44th year of his age was 
a great loss to his State. 

The writer is greatly indebted to William Baird, Esq., 
P. Stephen Hunter, Esq., and Hon. T. R. B. Wright, of 
Essex County, Va., for material used in the preparation of 
this sketch. 

J. M. G. 

December 20. 1909. 



42 Biographical Sketch 



From Oration Before the Society of Alumni of the 
University of A'^irginia. 

A few extracts from the xMiimni address will show his 
point of view. He says (p. 26) : 

"I assert, without fear of successful contradiction, that 
what America has done best, and what will exert the largest 
influence on other countries and posterity, is in political 
literature, and that is almost exclusively the work of 
Southern minds. It is true that some Northern critics have 
cooked over the old dishes of the schools about aristocracy, 
democracy, and monarchy, and the notions which the liberal 
thinkers of the last century made commonplaces ; and it is 
evidently on such food that Northern statesmen have been 
reared ; all that is deep, and original, and vital, in American 
politics is Southern. You will feel the difference sensibly 
if you compare the writings of the elder Adams with those 
of his great rival, Jefferson, or with Taylor's.^ And who 
is worthy to be named in the same breath with the tran- 
scendent Carolinian we still mourn, and on whose imper- 
ishable glory Death has placed his seal. No speeches were 
so widely or so eagerly read on their first appearance as 
his, for all felt them to be the final word on his side of 
every great question ; but still more earnestly will they 
be studied by future ages, for they are not wholly disjointed 
members of a great body of political philosophy, which the 
world has rarely seen equalled, and never surpassed. And 
if the South has done but little in other departments of 
literature, it is that she there missed the stimulus which 
the Constitution has hitherto secured to her slaveholders 
in politics. It would seem that studies not immediately 
connected with our practical interests, need the stimulus 

1 John Taylor, of Caroline County, Virginia, author of "New View^■' 
of the Constitution," "Construction Construed," "Tyranny Unmaske-'," 
"Arator," and others. 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 43 

afforded by concentrated wealth, concentrated either by the 
patronage of a central government, which, as in imperial 
Rome or France, makes an imitative literature ; or in the 
hands of individuals, and by the patronage of rival insti- 
tutions and centres of activity, which creates an original 
literature, as in Greece, Germany and England. Now, this 
stimulus the South has entirely wanted. It is true, there 
is a greater degree of physical well-being amongst her 
population, and a higher average of wealth amongst her 
whites, than in any other part of the world, but the habits 
of her people require many things as necessaries, which are 
elsewhere regarded as luxuries, and this high standard of 
comfort diminishes the surplus which is destined to pur- 
chase the refined elegancies of life, and to support literature 
and the arts. Yet this surplus would have been ample, 
and though we have no such overgrown fortunes as Astor's 
or Girard's to spare out of their abundance to letters, yet 
we might have concentrated our means to great literary ad- 
vantage by voluntary associations, had not even this surplus 
been exhausted by the course of Federal taxation and 
legislation, by which we have lost the use of an average 
amount, since 1790, of seventy-odd millions of dollars of 
our commerce, and at the same time paid in taxes a tribute 
averaging some fourteen millions of dollars per annum, 
to be spent at the North. And with the ability to encourage 
our own literature, we began to lose the desire — to lose that 
faith in ourselves and our duties, and our own institutions, 
without which no nation has ever accomplished anything great. 
The origin of this feeling goes far back ; the Revolution 
found us with entails, primogeniture, and an established 
church, and also with their natural consequence, a well- 
educated class, of whom our Wythes, Pendletons, and 
Masons, our Madisons, Jeffersons, and Randolphs, were the 
representatives — men whose minds were trained to such 
soundness of judgment that they could see the injustice, 
and the invidious distinctions of the system they grew up 
under, and be the first to abolish it. But in escaping the 



44 Biographical Sketch 

evils of the system, we lost the advantages it conferred, for 
no system of education adapted to the new order of things 
took its place." 

This, in his opinion, made the next generation greatly 
inferior to their fathers in learning, and "Mr. Jefferson saw 
this danger, and designed the University to avert it," He 
continues (p. 28) : "When our illustrious Jefiferson founded 
this University, he laid the axe at the root of the Upas 
tree of self-distrust. He struck the rock in the desert, and 
instead of the waters of bitterness we had quafifed, there 
gushed forth, in these Virginia mountains, plentiful streams 
of sweet waters, where all the tribes of our Southern Israel 
might quench their thirst. The University was on a new 
plan ; it was an original selection and revival of all the best 
features of ancient institutions adapted to the wants of our 
age and country. No Procrustean bed was devised for 
every mind, where, as in the Northern colleges, no matter 
what the need, or object, all are subjected to the same dis- 
cipline and instruction. One of its chief characteristics was 
the choice left the student of the schools he would attend, 
and the partial dependence of the professors on fees. The 
same principle was observed in the great seminaries of 
learning that illuminated the middle ages, Oxford and 
Paris, Bologna and Salamanca. It still distinguishes the 
schools that have made modern Germany almost the Attica 
of Europe. The whole course and spirit of instruction was 
changed ; it was capable of an expansion as infinite as the 
name. University, implies ; it was designed to be no mere 
smattering of infinitesimal doses of the classics, and mathe- 
matics, and philosophy, but whatever was taught was to be 
taught thoroughly. Jefferson framed the discipline to rely 
upon the principles of honor, and self-command, and good 
faith, so as to make gentlemen ; he founded the luminous 
tuition, so as to make philosophic scholars ; he combined 
both to make statesmen and accomplished men of the world. 
Already the good effects are seen. Our University at this, 
its tAventy-fifth anniversary, has just attained her majority 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 45 

according to the civil law, yet her sons are found in the 
highest offices of our country. They are seen in the Senate 
and the House of Representatives; they throng in our 
Legislature ; they govern sovereign States ; they shine in 
the pulpit and at the bar; they are professors in our colleges 
and teachers in our schools. There are academies now, in 
this and other States, founded and taught by graduates of 
this University, which supply a better education than could 
be had twenty-five years since at any college in the Union, 
and which can be surpassed by few now. These academies 
will in their turn aid the University in training an army of 
teachers for primary schools. Our State will thus establish 
a great system of popular education on the only plan con- 
sistent with the principles of free government and the rights 
of private property. She will aid in educating the teachers, 
leaving their employment to be determined by that volun- 
tary principle which she has already applied to religious 
instruction." 

Continuing the same line of thought, he says (p. 30) : 
"Let us keep clear of centralization, of the meddling inter- 
ference of what are called paternal governments. Let us 
give government as little, and leave as much as possible for the 
people, to do, for it will be infinitely better done. Remove 
the weights from their energies, and they will soon cover 
the State with a network of roads and canals ; they will use 
her coal and her water-power ; they will disembowel the 
earth of her minerals, and above all, they will improve her 
agriculture. By these means you will lay the foundations 
of as high a culture for your citizens as the world has ever 
seen. If the elements of wealth are abundant, equally great 
are the social advantages. We are about to make a new 
Constitution. We have no occasion to go abroad for 
models ; or to import a ready-made structure of Yankee 
notions, just as you would a house. No! let us build upon 
the rocky foundations of old Virginia customs, and en- 
large upon old Virginia models. Let us cautiously remove 
abuses, and breathe new life and vigor into the many wise 



46 Biographical Sketch 

institutions our ancestors have left us. We are not en- 
tirely without the Athenian elements of education. In 
the numerous political debates, which the habits of our 
people require, we have our Pnyx and our Ecclesia ; in the 
free religious assemblies, where our laity are admitted on 
an equality with the clergy, in our juries and county 
courts, we have so many local legislatures and tribunals 
which are to us what his councils and his juries (his 
Boulai and Hcliaca) were to the Athenian. In the sessions 
of our Legislature, and high salaries to our State ofificers. 
we have the means of counteracting those influences of the 
Federal patronage which draw ofif all our best talent from 
the immediate service of the State, which direct the popular 
attention to Federal opinion for its guide, and tend to cen- 
tralize all power at Washington. In our University let us 
have our Lyceum and Academy ; let us devote ourselves to 
realizing the plan of its founder; let us multiply its means 
of instruction and its schools ; let us make it the nucleus 
of our literary societies, and of our literary activity. Gather 
in these halls all the treasured wisdom of the past ; here 
guides, learned as the Sybil in all the mysteries of the 
spiritual world, may conduct the youth of the State through 
the Elysian fields of a vast Library, and teach them to 
question the shades of the departed mighty on the problems 
of the Future." 

The concluding paragraph of this address is but the 
culmination of its patriotic burden (p. 36) : "Let us add 
to the honors of the proud mother of States and statesmen 
the noble title of Mother of Letters. Her shield shows that, 
on this day, seventy-four years since, she transfixed the 
tyrant to the earth; her device, Sic semper Tyrannis, pro- 
claims that eternal in her breast, alta mentc rcpostum, lives 
the stern spirit of resistance to all outrage on her rights or 
her honor. Let the future prove that she knows how to 
create, as well as to destroy ; to elevate her citizens, while 
she crushes her foes. Methinks, in the prosperity of this 
University, in the awakening spirit of the people, in the 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 47 

roused energies of the whole South, I see the day-spring 
breaking upon our Hterary sky ; I see its dawn casting a 
rosy blush upon the murky clouds of our horizon, and a 
silvery veil over the mists that steal up from wood and 
stream ; and soon shall the bright sun of Southern genius, 
uprising, change the darkness of our waters into the shining 
of burning gold, while the matin songs of our poets shall 
hymn his welcome. When Pericles had placed before the 
Athenians all the reasons they had to love and value their 
country, and shown to what pitch of greatness she might 
be raised, if they would act worthily of her and of them- 
selves, he thought that he could sum up all — the fame of 
the past, the glory of the future, the duties of the present, — 
in one word, by saying that Athens was the School of 
Greece. Let us, I beseech you, gentlemen, apply that one 
word to ovirselves. Here, in these walls, may Virginia con- 
tinue to educate the Southern vouth, here may she bind 
their affections to the land of their ancestors, and hence 
send them out as missionaries of her principles! May her 
genius build up a new Parthenon of letters on this 
Acropolis ! Long, long may the old Mother Commonwealth 
hold high festival on this anniversary of her Independence ; 
long may she assemble her daughters at these, her yearly 
I'anathenaea ; long may she be the leader, the model, and 
THE School of the South, — of that South, which, by her 
noble people, her wise institutions, her future glorious litera- 
ture, is destined some day to be the School of the World." 

From His Pamphlet ox "The L'Nion, Past and Future." 

The author refers in this pamphlet to the sacrifices 
made by the Southern States, Virginia especially, "for the 
sake of the Union," as in the case of the cession of the 
Northwest Territory, "an act of grosser fatuity," as Ran- 
dolph said, "than ever poor old Lear or the Knight of 
La Mancha was guilty of," and the Missouri Compromise, 
quoting Randolph again, made under the influence of a 
"politico-religious fanaticism," which "has insinuated itself 



48 Biographical Sketch 

wherever it can to the disturbance of the public peace, the 
loosening of the keystone of the Constitution, and the 
undermining of the foundation on which the arch of our 
Union rests." 

"In vain did Randolph say to the South, 'principiis 
obsta,' — in vain did his shrill Cassandra tones point out the 
nature of the attack, that the enemy was proceeding, 'not 
to storm the fort, but to sap' ; that we ought to remember 
the sentiment, 'iion vi scd sacpc cacdciido,' and 'permit no 
attack to pass, no matter in how demure and apparently 
trivial an aspect it may be presented.' " 

So with respect to the abolition petitions, and the oppo- 
sition to the return of fugitive slaves, which Governor 
Marcy, of new York, in 1836, acknowledged to be one of 
"the sacred obligations which the States owe to each other 
as members of the Federal Union." Further, the proposi- 
tions to exclude the South from the territory of California 
and New Mexico, and to abolish slavery in the District 
of Columbia, which last would be so detrimental to the 
interests of both Virginia and Maryland. "The Northern 
vote in Congress on these questions is almost unanimous 
without distinction of parties, against the South." So, even 
at this time, Northern aggression was progressing to the 
abolition of slavery within the States, for, to quote Ran- 
dolph once more, " 'Fanaticism, political or religious, has 
no stopping-place short of Heaven, or of — Hell !" " 

From Reply to Review of the Pamphlet by Mr. E. H. 

Derby. 

This pamphlet was reviewed by Mr. E. H. Derby, of 
Massachusetts, in the October, 1850, number of Hunt's Mer- 
chants' Magazine and Commercial Review, and this review 
was replied to by Mr. Garnett in the number of Hunt's 
Magazine for April, 185 1. After replying at length to Mr. 
Derby's criticisms and sustaining the views expressed in 
his pamphlet, Mr. Garnett concludes: 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 49 

"With Mr. Derby's permission, I will suggest the true 
conditions of harmonious Union. Let the North cultivate 
a friendly feeling towards the South, and try to understand 
her institutions. Let her remember that Caucasians and 
Negroes are of different races; that they can never amal- 
gamate ; that it is absurd to talk of transporting either 
across the seas ; and that while several millions of each 
live together at the South, the best possible relation for 
both which can exist between them, is that of master and 
slave. Let the North, therefore, cease to regard slavery as 
such an evil and reproach, and let her recollect that she is 
in no manner responsible for institutions of other sovereign 
States. She may then cease to direct all the moral power 
of her press, her pulpit, and her Senates, to the destruction 
of the dearest right of the Southern people — their domestic 
peace. Let both sections, the North and the South, recog- 
nize the great principle of the equality and sovereignty of 
the States, whether slave labor or hireling, and open the 
common territory equally to both. Let the Federal Gov- 
ernment be closely confined to its few duties and powers, 
as defined by the letter of its charter ; and let us equalize 
the burdens of taxation by free trade, economy, retrench- 
ment, and a strict adherence to the Constitution. 

"If such proposals as these seem ridiculous, it must be 
]>ecause the Constitution is a dead letter, and actual despot- 
ism, wielded by a sectional majority, threatens to usurp 
the place of the simple, but glorious confederacy of sov- 
ereign republics. If the latter be the Union for which 
INIr. Derby prays, csto pcrpetua, I join in the prayer; but if 
the former, I would cry, woe to it ! or still greater woes 
await the country which tamely submits to its oppressive 
tyranny ! 

"The reviewer tells us that the fanatical abolitionists are 
comparatively few and harmless ; I am glad to believe it. 
But the true danger is from men like Mr. Derby himself, 
who are continually talking of the evils of slaver}^ and 
strengthening the moral sentiment of the Northern people 



50 Biographical Sketch 

against it. This moral sentiment, this 'spirit of the age/ 
as A^r. Derby calls it, must constantly force its way into 
legislation, in a Democratic age and country like ours. And 
this result becomes more certain, as the consolidation of 
all powers in the Federal Government fosters the feeling of 
the Northern people that they are responsible for slavery, 
and all the other institutions of the country. The true 
enemies of the Union are those who so 'ardently desire to 
alleviate slavery, and promote its eventual extinction.' They 
are kindling a fire which they will be unable to extinguish, 
and before they are aware of the danger, the Union will 
perish in the flames. Its true friends are those who stand by 
the Constitution, and manfully defend their rights. The 
Union was fovmded on the basis of political equality, and 
independence, and domestic peace amongst its meiiibers; 
and on this basis alone can it be preserved." 

From Speech on the Basis Ol'Estion. 

"Speech of M. R. K. Garnett, Esq., of Essex County, 
in Committee of the Whole, on the Basis Question, deliv- 
ered in the Virginia Reform Convention, on Monday. April 
14, 1851. 

Richmond, Va., 1851." 

In discussing this question, Mr. Garnett drew arguments 
from the Constitutions of other States, and from modern 
and ancient history, with which he was perfectly familiar. 
He said (p. 10) : "Like Georgia and North Carolina, South 
Carolina has apportioned representation in the two Houses 
of her Legislature upon a different basis. The Senate is 
arranged upon a purely arbitrary territorial basis, which 
cannot be changed except by an amendment of the Con- 
stitution. The House is arranged upon our mixed basis. 
Now, the effect of this combination is to give to the eastern 
or tide-water section of the State a majority in the Senate, 
which remains fixed without regard to the changes of popu- 
lation and property. On the other hand, the mixed basis 



Hon. Ml'scoe Russell Hunter Garnett 51 

gives the majority in the House to the western portion of 
the State, and it is one of its recommendations that, if any 
county or section is overtaxed for one decade, it thereby 
becomes entitled, in the next ten years, to an overshare of 
representation, so as to increase its power to correct this 
excess of taxation. It is a self-adjusting machine. And in 
taking the average of taxes for ten years, it not only secures 
representation from accidental variations of taxation, but it 
furnishes security that the majority will not use the taxing 
power to increase the future representation of its section. 
The Constitution of South Carolina is thus arranged upon 
the very principle which I have before advocated as true ; 
that is to say, it requires the concurrent assent of the two 
great interests to the passage of any law. It gives the 
political power, not to the numerical majority, but to the 
concurrent majority. I think, at a different stage of this 
debate, the gentleman from Accomac (Mr. Wise), whose 
absence I regret, stated in answer to the gentleman from 
Fauquier (Mr. Scott), that the opinions of Mr. Calhoun 
were adverse to the mixed basis. Now, I have in my pos- 
session a letter which Mr. Calhoun published in 1846, in 
reference to this subject, explaining the character and his- 
tory of the Constitution of South Carolina, and discussing 
this whole question. It will be found that he strongly com- 
mends the mixed basis, partly upon such considerations as 
I have urged, while he regards the principle of what he calls 
concurrent majorities as the true basis for our State govern- 
ments. 

If you refer to the history of other countries for author- 
ity,, you will obtain similar results; look, for instance, to the 
French revolution of 1789. The first French constitution, 
that of 1 79 1, framed by the national iVssembly, apportioned 
representation among the different departments of France 
upon a combined basis of territory, taxation and population. 
The gentleman from Berkeley (Mr. Faulkner) quoted from 
Burke's criticism upon this constitution, in support of his 
argument against the mixed basis. It surprised me that 



52 BlOGRxVPHICAL SkETCH 

the gentleman should cite Burke on his side of the question, 
when Burke's very objection was that he considered that 
no one immutable and fixed rule could be applicable to all 
governments at all times and in all places. Why, sir, he 
even tells us that property must be "predominant in repre- 
sentation" to be rightly protected. No man could have been 
more utterly opposed to a basis of mere numbers than Mr. 
Burke ; no man reprobated more eloquently such doctrines 
as are avowed by the party of which the gentleman from 
Berkeley is a distinguished member. 

My friend from Accomac (Mr. Wise) referred to the 
same French constitution as leading to all the horrors of 
the French revolution — to its desecration of the altars and 
its Saturnalia of blood. He truly astonished me by such a 
reference. Did he forget that whatever good sprung out 
of the French revolution was the work of the National 
Assembly, which adopted that mixed basis constitution? 
The whole system of equal civil rights, of civil liberty in 
France, arose from the liberal legislation of the National 
Assembly. And has the gentleman forgotten that the very 
moment the party which advocated the national right of 
the mere numerical majority to govern, obtained the as- 
cendency, they abolished the mixed basis, and provided by 
the constitution of 1793 that representation should be 
based upon population alone. That was th(? doctrine of 
Robespierre and his followers, the constitution-makers, the 
Anacharsis-Clootzes,^ and the "orators of the human race" 
in that day. So far did they carry their principle, that they 
provided that the legislature should consist only of a single 
branch, so that there should not be even a chance of a 
minority checking a majority through another House, or by 
an executive veto. And the principle led to its natural con- 
sequence — the Reign of Terror! Why, if it were fully car- 
ried out in this country, without the restraints of the Fed- 
eral Government and the conservative influence of slave 

^ See Encyclopaedia Britannica, s. v. Clootz. 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 53 

institutions, we would have like scenes of horror occurring 
here. Truly, if theory and practice always went together, 
the debates we have listened to in this Convention might 
well excite our apprehensions for the safety of our social 
system, and our constitutional freedom. They have almost 
made me fear I had overrated the power of the conservative 
influences to which I before alluded. When I have seen 
gentlemen, time and again, looking up to the galleries for 
applause, in the course of their arguments, and have even 
heard them appealing to the spectators to know whether 
certain constituencies would tolerate the opinions avowed by 
the other party, and have heard those galleries responding 
to the call, I could not but remember the National Assembly 
of France, when the mountain called upon the mob to over- 
power the conservative portion of that body ; I could almost 
fancy myself on the eve of those days, when neither life, 
liberty, property, nor the pursuit of happiness, found any 
protection from government. Ah ! this numerical majority, 
to which, you tell me, God gave a natural right to rule, then 
perpetrated crimes which filled the whole earth with their 
horror. It used its sovereignty to massacre the wretched 
victims in its prisons, and vindicated its authority by cover- 
ing the rivers of France with the bodies of her murdered 
women and children. 

Let gentlemen once succeed in making the poor of this 
country believe that their interests are directly opposed to 
those of the rich, and that they are oppressed by a tyran- 
nical aristocracy of slaveholders ; once tolerate the principle 
that the mere numerical majority is to dispose, at its 
pleasure, of all the interests of society, and all the rights of 
individuals ; that it is to be the sole judge of the extent of its 
own powers, and is to be restrained in the gratification of 
its passions only by its sense of justice, — and the whole 
fabric of your civilization is undermined ! "' 

Mr. Garnett drew illustrations also from the history of 
Athens and of the Roman republic, and continued: 



54 Biographical Sketch 

"Where there are separate interests, legislation by any 
one will be for its own benefit, to the injury of the rest. To 
be just, and for the benefit of the whole, it must be by the 
consent of all. Now. in most countries there is a natural 
and necessary diversity of interests in the parts, resulting 
from geographical as well as social and other causes. In 
Virginia and all the Southern Atlantic States, such a diver- 
sity grows out of the physical structure. The Blue Ridge 
and the Alleghany mountains run parallel to the seacoast, 
and at a considerable distance from it in all these States, 
and that geographical fact creates a natural difference of 
interest. Survey your great State of Virginia, and all the 
complex varieties of its domain, from its extreme verge, 
where the blue waters of our western Rhine rush past their 
green banks to bear the teeming commerce of the Trans- 
Alleghany basin to the Father of Waters. Behold the 
Southwest ! Its fertile valley, flanked b}^ mountain walls 
filled with mineral treasures, a great natural highway from 
the Atlantic border to the Mississippi and the Pacific coast ! 
Or look down upon those Alleghany chains, rising, range 
after range, like the furrowed surface of some troubled sea — 
those innumerable herds of cattle, pasturing on a thousand 
verdant hills — those rich bottoms sunk down Avith the abun- 
dance of their fatness.^ Or descend from the Blue Ridge 
along that slope which we call the Piedmont. Gaze upon 
its rolling lands, its forests, and its champaigns, all sending 
down the fair fruits of their agricultural toil, gathering from 
every quarter, in a growing current like the rills and streams 
from their own hills, swiftly and at once, towards the Tide- 
water, that ancient seat of our race, the true Old Dominion, 
where Virginia sits enthroned upon her many waters, — 
that Tide-water whose highways are mighty rivers, and whose 
fields were designed by Nature for blooming gardens, — 
that Tide-water of which our forefathers exclaimed in rap- 
ture, as for the first time they ascended the majestic Pow- 
hatan, and gazed on its green savannahs and its forests, 
bursting into leaf and flower in all the radiant glory of 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 55 

the new-born Spring, that surely Heaven and Earth seemed 
never to have agreed better to form a commodious and de- 
lightful habitation for man. 

"Shall we bid defiance to all these differences of soil and 
structure? Shall we forget the consequent diversities of 
occupation, of character, of interest and of population? 
Shall we vainly strive against the decrees of Providence 
itself stamped upon the face of Nature? You tell me that 
your public works, your puny borings, tunnellings, and cut- 
tings through the eternal hills of granite, nay, that your 
paper constitution is to obliterate all sectional lines, and 
level the Blue Ridge itself! The world has heard monarchs 
boast before that the Pyrenees were levelled, but the 
Pyrenees still stand ; and so long as that Ridge lifts its 
blue summits into the azure of Heaven, so long will these 
divisions and diversities remain, so long will the constitu- 
tion proclaimed by Nature set at naught your paltry efforts. 

You may unite the sections of our State, you can never 
identify them. Your attempt to consolidate them into a 
homogeneous whole by making one geographical interest 
supreme over the rest, will only aggravate and embitter 
the difference. Strip it of all its disguises, and it is a sec- 
tional despotism which you are seeking to create. You 
may secure the seeming uniformity of such a government, 
but how opposite is that to the harmony of a free and equal 
union of all the interests of the State? Look at Virginia — 
not as you may wish or fancy it, not as a Utopia, a field 
for the trial of your experiments and theories, but as it 
actually is, and make your constitution the faithful reflec- 
tion of nature. Here 'yo" possess' — let me apply to your 
condition the words of a great man on another occasion — 
'you possess that variety of parts corresponding with the 
various descriptions of which your community is happily 
composed. You have all that combination, and all that 
opposition of interests, you have that action and counter- 
action, which, in the natural and political world, from the 
reciprocal struggle of discordant power, draws out the har- 
mony of the universe.' 



56 Biographical Sketch 

"These opposed and eonflicting interests, tvhich you con- 
sider as so great a blemish in our old and present constitu- 
tions, interpose a salutary check on all precipitate resolutions. 
They render deliberation a matter, not of choice, but of neces- 
sity; they make all change a subject of compromise, tvhich 
naturally begets moderation, and under all the headlong exer- 
tions of arbitrary pozver in the fezv or in the many, forever 
impracticable." 

Mr. Garnett continued further: "And, sir, if I support 
what is called the mixed basis upon this occasion, it is not 
as my first choice. I believe, myself, in a system of repre- 
sentation founded upon the history and geography of the 
country, in what is called an arbitrary system of representa- 
tion — one springing out of the interests and the wants of the 
community. I support this mixed basis because it comes 
nearer to such a system than the white basis. It comes 
nearer because, as I have said before, it does not confine 
itself to the consideration of man simply in his capacity to 
be numbered. It does not commit the absurdity of sup- 
posing that all men are perfectly alike in interest and char- 
acter. It considers man in another important element of 
his existence. It regards property and adapts its representa- 
tion in some measure to the different conditions of that 
property and its relations to society. Since this discussion 
commenced, sir, we have been told by the advocates of the 
white basis that property is the creation of government 
and that the powers of government belong, by natural and 
indefeasible right, to the numerical majority. The inevit- 
able conclusion, then, is that the numerical majority, has 
the absolute control over property, its creature, and may 
abolish any or all kinds of it when it pleases. 

"Now, sir, I entirely repudiate such doctrine. Our bill 
of rights classes the right to property among our natural 
rights. Property is not the creature of government, but 
one of its primordial elements. It is coeval with society 
and political organization, — all spring from the necessities 
and the irresistible instincts of our moral nature, implanted 



Hon. Muscoe Russell .Hunter Garnett 57 

by the Creator himself. What is property? It is that por- 
tion of the surrounding world which each man has been 
able to conquer to his use by his industry, his reason, and 
his will. It is the indispensable condition of life to the 
individual, and of civilization to society. What is man's condi- 
tion without it? He comes into the world 

■ iiifaiis iiidigus oiniii 

Vitali auxilio ; 

[Lucretius Y. 223-4. J 

he is cast upon the earth, as the old jurist describes 
it, nudiis ill nudum. By the accumulations of those who 
have preceded him, by the institution of hereditary prop- 
erty, his existence is preserved, and his faculties, bodily 
and mental, nourished until he is able to protect himself. 
And if he then acquires property for himself, it must be 
by the application of his labor to the capital which others 
have created before him. The necessary instruments of his 
toil he owes to the institution of property. Without prop- 
erty, man could never have accomplished the wonders with 
which he has filled the habitable globe. And the whole 
property of the country is but the material representation 
of the reason and will of its past and present generations. 
Property is interwoven through the whole social fabric, and 
enters into and modifies all the relations of men to each 
other. Its different kinds and quantities are not an unfair 
exponent of the different interests, wants, and character of 
the various parts of a State. The property of Virginia has 
grown out of her natural condition and her history, and it 
has modified both. By its mutations, you mark the progress 
of those mighty changes which it was the means, in the 
hands of our ancestors, of effecting. Three centuries since, 
our country was covered by dense primeval forests, whose 
silence was rarely broken by a human voice ; and now thou- 
sands of household lights cheer the darkness of night from 
every eastern hill, and in every mountain valley, and near 
these household fires have arisen the altars of our God. 



58 BlOGRAPHJCAL SKETCH 

And around these hearths and altars have gathered our 
children and our slaves, our herds and our crops, the metes 
and bounds, the fences and landmarks of our property. And 
the whole represents the industrious toil, the talents, and 
the energies and virtues of the communities which own it, 
whose affections and thoughts are infinitely complicated 
with it, and the very manner of whose existence it modifies and 
determines. The foundations of this property, of these monu- 
ments of industry, were laid by our ancestors, and we guard 
and add to it, not merely for ourselves, but for the posterity 
to whom we hope to deliver it. In its perpetual increase 
and hereditary transmission, we have visibly before us one 
of the strongest of the bonds which draw together and 
cement into one all the generations of man, the past, the 
present, and the future. How narrow must be a scheme of 
representation which wholly overlooks this mighty element 
of society, as one of the just measures of the interests and 
necessities of its parts ! How unwise and unjust would be 
your government, which regards man only as an abstraction 
and forgets the vast development of his nature manifested 
and realized in property. And such is your basis of mere 
numbers. On the contrary, the mixed basis which I advo- 
cate, by combining with the element of population the addi- 
tional element of property as measured by its contributions 
to government, furnishes a rule which must obviously make 
representation a truer reflection of all the interests of 
society." 

In the latter part of his address, Mr. Garnett discusses 
the internal improvements that have been made for the 
benefit of the western portion of the State, and in conse- 
quence of which a huge public debt was piled up. He also 
discusses the threatened division of the State by the western 
portion, from which we see that ten years before the Civil 
War, a division of the State was foreshadowed, if the West 
did not get what it wanted. He concludes his speech as 
follows : 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 59 

"But I trust, sir, that such a catastrophe may be averted, 
and when the heat of the discussion has subsided, calmer, 
wiser counsels may succeed. God forbid that a foreig^n 
flag should ever wave over any portion of the soil of Vir- 
ginia ! Let us preserve her, one and indivisible, in all her 
ancient glory. But it cannot be done by this principle of 
consolidation and socialism, which you are attempting to 
introduce into our government. It cannot be done by this 
surrender of the interests of the minority into the hands of 
the mere numerical majority, by thus binding one section 
hand and foot, and delivering it over to the tender mercies 
of the other. All our ills cannot be cured by continually 
crying to us, white basis ! white basis ! This white basis 
seems to be a sort of panacea in the eyes of some gentle- 
men. No evil under the sun can be named which it will 
not cure. Whatever may be the subject of discussion, 
the same cry of white basis perpetually recurs. It reminds 
me of the verse : 

'Abra was present ere I called her name. 
And when I called another, Abra came.' 

— Prior's "Solomon." 

"The present is a contest between the opposite prin- 
ciples of consolidation on the one hand, and individualism 
on the other. It is a contest of individual rights against 
despotism of all kinds, whether they be despotic kings or 
despotic numbers — freedom against absolute government — 
the sovereign rights of the individual against the despotic 
rule of the mere numerical majority. It is a question 
whether fanciful theories shall overrule experience and be- 
come the basis of our Constitution — whether the numerical 
majority shall absorb all the powers of the community, 
shall define what constitutes the highest degree of civiliza- 
tion, shall dictate to every man the aims and course of his 
life, and shall then relieve him of all moral responsibility 
by undertaking to provide for all his wants at the expense 
of the rest of society. This controversy is going on through- 



6o Biographical Sketch 

out the whole world. Ours is but one phase of it, not so 
portentous as in other countries, on account of the peculiar 
influences existing here, but the principle is the same. It 
is the anti-republican principle of the pure, absolute democ- 
racy of mere numbers, which has everywhere begotten 
socialism, and as such, in the name of freedom, I utterly 
abhor and abjure it. No such principle as this was brought 
by our ancestors to Jamestown, as the gentleman from 
Kanawha (Mr. Summers) seemed to imagine; but from the 
season when the first log cabins were raised at old James- 
town to the present day, Virginia has lived under a gov- 
ernment organized by our republican fathers on entirely 
different principles — on the principles of individual rights, 
of protection and security to all — a government, not for the 
greatest good of the greatest number, but for the greatest 
good of each and all. The lesser number was not sacrificed 
to the greater, but both were equally protected. The ob- 
jects and powers of government were few and simple ; in- 
dividual freedom was enlarged, and every man was left to 
achieve his happiness according to his own views and in his 
own way. Dependent on his own resources, looking to 
the charity neither of society nor of government, but trust- 
ing to God alone for help, man became the noble, independ- 
ent being he was intended for, and all his faculties and 
talents were exercised and developed. 

"In such principles have been the strength and glory of 
Virginia. They have been illustrated not only in her domes- 
tic, but in her federal policy, and not merely there, but in 
the great men whom she has given to immortal renown. 
When our ancestors sought this country, they imagined that 
the empire they were founding would extend from ocean to 
ocean, and that the waves of the southern Pacific would 
alone terminate their dominion. In this they were mis- 
taken. Their territory was not so extensive as they hoped ; 
but the}^ founded an empire of ideas — of the true principles 
of government, — which extended still further, which has 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter GariVett 6i 

stretched not only from sea to sea, but throughout the 
world, and has won a fame that shall never die. And in 
this sense they truly founded the 'Old Dominion.' an 

'Iiiipcriitni Occano, faiiiam qui tcrininct astris.' " 

[Virgil, Acncid. I. 287.] 

These quotations have been made at length because of 
the importance of this speech, and the fact that the copy 
from which they are made is the only copy known to be 
in existence. 

From Financial Report to Virginia Legislature of 1856. 

The following extracts from this Financial Report to the 
House of Delegates will show the principles on which Mr. Gar- 
nett thought the finances of the State should be managed, and 
his views on that subject. He says : "The first principle of a 
sound financial system is to provide for the ordinary and regu* 
lar necessities of the year by taxation within the year. Public 
debt ought never to be incurred except for the public de- 
fence in war, or for extraordinary public works, which are 
finished once and forever and are to yield their returns in future 
years." The details of this Report would not now be of in- 
terest, but where principles are involved, it is illustrative of 
his character and ability to state his views. On the sale of 
the bank stocks owned by the State he says: "If the proposed 
sale of our bank stocks is judicious in a financial aspect, it is 
still more to be recommended in a political point of view. It 
is. indeed, absurd for a Commonwealth, which is perpetually 
seeking to borrow money, to undertake to lend it to the mer- 
chants and manufacturers of the State ; yet such is Virginia's 
position as a stockholder. It is wholly inconsistent with all 
sound political principles, especially as taught in the Old Vir- 
ginia School, for a State to become a partner in commercial 
enterprises, or to go beyond the legitimate functions of gov- 
ernment. The connection with the bank deprives the State 
of all effective power over the currency, for her interest 
paralyzes every efifort at control or reform, and is continually 



62 Biographical Sketch 

invoked to protect the abuses of banking. Her directors repre- 
sent only the stockholders' feeling, and are useless, except as 
their appointment affords political patronage. Her great 
visitorial and inquisitorial powers slumber, while the protest, 
that there are State directors in the bank, is used to prevent 
inquiry. Nor is this all ; a constant fear and danger that the 
dominant political party may increase the State directory, and 
convert the banks into political machines, keeps down the 
value of the stock. There is just ground for such fears, while 
the State remains in partnership with the banks. For there 
are many in every party wlio care more for spoils than 
measures, and still more, v/ho confide for success rather to 
patronage and corruption than to the innate power of truth. 
Should such opinions prevail, and subject the banks and in- 
ternal improvement companies to political control, and convert 
them into political machines, we may expect commercial and 
financial disasters, and what is far worse, deep political cor- 
ruption and profligacy. Let us then, in time, sever this un- 
natural and dangerous union of bank and State, leave business 
and currency to the control of the laws of business and cur- 
rency, and we shall have achieved an immense good for our 
State. 

"Your committee, therefore, earnestly recommends a sale 
of the bank stocks." 

The same reasoning will apply to canals and railroads as 
to banks ; the State should keep clear of all such entangle- 
ments. 

Finally, Mr. Garnett states what the committee proposed, 
and that they were aware how far they had fallen short of 
what they proposed. He says : 

"In commencing their labors, your committee proposed to 
themselves to reform the complications and obscurities of our 
present fiscal affairs ; to make them so simple and clear as to 
be intelligible to everybody, and thus increase the responsi- 
bility of their guardians to public opinion ; to check the great 
and growing abuses in the management of our credit and 
loans, by remodeling that department of government ; to in- 
crease th.e resources of the treasury by a more faithful assess- 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 63 

ment of the vast property of the State, a diminution in the 
expenses of collection, and the exaction of interest from the 
corporations, who are the Commonwealth's beneficiaries and 
debtors; to adjust the receipts through the year to the expendi- 
tures ; to enforce prompt payments by the collectors, and 
establish regularity in the fiscal operations ; to cover the 
present deficiency by taxation, and yet to distribute the burden 
so as not to press too hardly on the community ; to restore 
the balance of receipts and expenditures, and place the re- 
demption of all our engagements beyond a possible doubt, by 
honest and adequate taxation ; to reduce the public debt, and 
pay off. in a moderate time, all that existed before the new 
Constitution ; to separate the banks from the State so as to 
purify both, and remove every political obstacle from the resto- 
ration of our currency. 

"Such was the large field for your committee to labour in. 
They are aware how far the result falls short of their wishes ; 
but they have deeply felt the responsibilities of their position 
in this critical period ; and they will be more than rewarded 
for all their toil and anxious thought, if aught of success has 
crowned their earnest endeavors in the discharge of their 
duties. No true Virginian can be insensible to the hazard of 
any imputation on her honour. It has never been stained by 
any delay in fulfilling her promises, and it never shall be. 
When a few months have past, the disorder in her finances 
corrected, and her afifairs settled on a surer foundation, her 
credit will recover, and assume a higher rank in the markets 
of the world." 

This shows the views of a "true Virginian," endorsed by 
the Committee of Finance of the House of Delegates, as to 
how the finances of the State should be managed, and as to 
how the credit of the State should be restored to its former 
high position — good Democratic doctrine conducive to the wel- 
fare of the Common v.-ealth. 

From Colloquy in Congress. 

Engaging in a colloquy with the chairman of the Commit- 
tee on Ways and Means [Mr. Campbell of Ohio], he re- 



64 Biographical Sketch 

marks: "Sir, when that gentleman, and those who think 
with him, are legislating for the benefit of classes and manu- 
facturing capitalists, let them remember that largest of all 
classes, the laboring poor. When the poor constituent of such 
Representatives rises in the morning and looks through the 
window that admits the light of heaven into his cabin, let him 
recollect that light is still taxed as heavily as ever by his 
Representative when he had $24,000,000 of taxes to remit. 
When he puts on his coarse cotton shirt, and draws about him 
the woolen coat that is to shield him from the blasts of a 
northwestern winter, let him bear in mind that his Represen- 
tative had $24,000,000 of taxes to release, but not one dime 
would he abate from the tribute upon these necessaries of 
life. When he goes forth to his daily work, whether he 
turns the sod of the prairie with his plow, or in the forge the 
anvil rings with his sturdy blows, let him again remember that 
the tools of his industry, the plow which he guides, and the 
hammer which he wields, still pay the same heavy taxes, 
while his Representative had these $24,000,000 to repeal. And 
this is the tariff which the gentleman seriously proposes for 
our acceptance. Sir. if such be the creed of the party of 
which the gentleman is a distinguished leader, I take it that 
they cannot long maintain their hold upon the agricultural 
Northwest. 

"Mr. Campbell, of Ohio : For the benefit of the Republi- 
can party, let me say that T am not recognized, I believe, as 
one of its leaders. 

"Mr. GaRxNEtt : Well, sir, I always thought I saw a bright 
spot about that gentleman, and I am glad to hear that my 
sagacity is justified. Since that party does not recognize him, 
he stands by himself ; and let me warn him to get, as quick 
as he can, out of the uncomfortable position in which he 
has placed himself, both in regard to his party relations and 
his tariff scheme [Laughter]. The doors of the Democratic 
fold are still open to him ; but he must first wash himself seven 
times in the waters of Jordan. [Much laughter.]" 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 65 

From Speech on Admission of Kansas, March 22, 1858. 

He says : 

"I beg you, Mr. Chairman, to look back at its history. In 
1820 we were excluded from more than nine-tenths of our 
common territory ; slavery and slave States were forever pro- 
hibited in nine hundred and sixty-five thousand square miles 
of the Louisiana territory, while only one hundred and ten 
thousand miles were left open to Southern immigration and 
the possible extension of Southern institutions. For the sake 
of Union we submitted to this unjust decree. In 1845 Texas, 
a sovereign State which had formed and maintained her in- 
stitutions outside of the Union, came in by annexation. And 
here let me warn my Southern friends that, if our Federal 
boundaries are to be further enlarged, it is far safer to annex 
slave States ready formed to our hand, than to acquire terri- 
tories to be struggled and disputed for. 

"A few years after we acquired a vast region on the 
Pacific — some four hundred and sixty-four thousand square 
miles. But were we of the South allowed to enter on its pos- 
session as equals ? Gentlemen on the other side tell me, yes ; 
the ^lassachusetts man could no more carry a slave there 
than the Virginian. Sir, when the man of the North went 
there, he took with him all his property, all his institutions, his 
whole system of society ; he was free to give honor and 
power to his native land by establishing another New England, 
kindred and sympathizing republics, on the Pacific shore, 
but the Southerner had no such privileges. He must qualify 
himself first by selling his property, by severing the kindly 
ties and life-long afifections that bind master and slave to- 
gether, and by abandoning the institutions under whose shelter 
he was born, and amid which he was proud to live and hoped 
to die. Here was a vast and almost uninhabited region ; its 
secular silence was unbroken, save by the monotonous roar of 
the Pacific waves and the sighing of the wind among the 
gigantic trees, which seemed relics of the elder world — fit 
shelter for the Titanic races of an earlier creation. 



66 Biographical Sketch 

"At last the man of fate, the Anglo-Norman, came, the 
Aladdin of a more wondrous story than ever x\rabian dreamed. 
The forests fell ; light broke through their primeval shades. 
The wilderness blossomed. Streams, lately dark and turbid, 
rolled bright over golden sands, and mountains, but yester- 
day sombre and barren, now gleamed and glowed with the 
shining metal that shot and sparkled through every vein. 

"But when the Virginian, or the man of the South, came 
to the portals of this mighty region, he was denied admission. 
He found the gates spread wide. He saw all the tribes of 
the earth — the Celt and the Teuton — the coppervisaged Chinese 
and the swarthy Hindoo — swift to share the spoils. He saw, 
day and night, the restless stream of Northern emigrants pour- 
ing through the gates ; the men of New England and New 
York, bearing with them their property and their laws, their 
houseliolds and their household gods, their Lares and Penates. 
All, all were admitted, he only excluded ! In vain did he 
recall that his valor had helped to unbar those portals ; in 
vain did he tell that one Virginian had driven back the foe 
in Northern Mexico, while another made a march more won- 
derful than Cortez, from Vera Cruz to the palace of the 
Aztecs ; in vain did he recount how the Mississippi rifles 
stemmed the tide of battle at Buena Vista, and the Palmettos 
reaped the harvest of death and of glory amid the fires of 
Churubusco ; in vain did he point to the honorable scars upon 
his body, won in many a tented field — still, still, he was for- 
bidden to pass, unless he would first despoil himself of his 
property, abdicate his duties as a master, desert his household, 
and forswear his nationality. He might then, indeed, degraded, 
enter ; but he must never sing the songs of his own country, 
or transplant its laws into that strange land. And this, we 
are told, is equality !" 

One of his concluding paragraphs follows : 

"Sir, I speak for myself and the people whom I especially 
represent on~this floor, and I think I can speak with equal 
confidence for the whole South, when I say that while we 
love our mother State above all things — first, last, and for- 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 67 

ever — yet we are sincerely attached to the Union of all the 
States ; that we love every star which glitters on the azure 
field of its banner ; we prize the common glories that consecrate 
that flag, we wonder at the beneficence of a kind Providence, 
which has made a vast granary in the Northwest, which has 
lavished water-power and mechanical advantages and in- 
genuity in the Northeast, which has stored up Nature's golden 
treasury in the California hills, and has endowed the agricul- 
ture-loving South with the staples of man and the sceptre of 
his commerce ; we are grateful to the wisdom that has united 
these different sections into one grand alliance, which secures 
a perfect free trade in the exchange of our varied produc- 
tions, and the supply of our mutual wants ; and we admire the 
universal peace which the Union has spread over a mighty con- 
tinent. I say we value all these things, and, therefore, that we 
stand here this day, as in days past, to do battle for the only 
means of preserving them to you and to us — to defend the 
Constitution of our country. It is because we value them that 
we will ask nothing but what is right, and submit to nothing 
that is wrong. And what is right is State equality in the 
enjoyment of our territories, and opportunity peacefully to ex- 
tend our several institutions." 

From Speech on the State of the Union, Jan. 16, 1861. 

The first of these speeches is a thoughtful review of the 
anti-slavery agitation, and a consequent discussion of the 
course of the Southern States. He says : 

"Mr. Calhoun, as long ago as 1833, predicted that this 
anti-slavery feeling would dissolve all parties formed on other 
issues, and were it possible to restore the old Whig and Demo- 
cratic parties, the history of the last twenty years would be 
repeated more quickly. This consequence necessarily results 
from the organization of political society at the North. In 
populous communities, where all are of the same race, and 
universal suffrage and apportionment of representation on mere 
numbers prevail, the Democracy necessarily becomes a govern- 
ment, or rather a despotism, of the numerical majority. There 



68 Biographical Sketch 

are many who have to labor too severely for their daily sub- 
sistence to devote much attention to political affairs, or to 
acquire that training which is necessary to freemen for an in- 
telligent judgment of the issues of the day. Many votes are 
controlled in great part by patronage and money, directly or 
indirectly used. Where parties are nicely balanced, that will 
be successful which commands the largest influences of this 
corrupting kind. Hence party contests are chiefly for the 
spoils ; and there is a constant tendency to increase the num- 
ber of offices, the amount of expenditures, and contracts, and 
jobs — in one word, to swell the spoils. In this state of things, 
when a party appears like the original anti-slavery party, 
animated by fanatical zeal for a single idea, each of the great 
divisions of the spoils parties of necessity begins to bid for 
its vote, and, instead of resisting, to yield to its errors. Thus 
its principles are gradually diffused through the masses, until at 
last, adopted openly by one of the regular parties, they con- 
duct it to victory, and gain for it the coveted spoils.'' 

Mr. Garnett goes on to argue .that "it is in vain, therefore, 
to expect safety from a change of parties at the North." He 
contends that "The present Constitution, as our fathers made 
it, was all-sufficient, while it protected kindred and friendly 
States, and would be so still, were all disposed to fulfill its ob- 
ligations with a good faith, inspired by mutual good-will and re- 
spect. There is danger that new declaratory clauses or promises 
would be regarded no more than the old." After glancing at 
the improbability of securing any proper amendments to the 
Constitution, he continues : "Meantime Virginia, my own 
State, has called a Convention of her people in their sovereign 
capacity for the 13th of February, which will decide her future 
course. She has been, she still is, sincerely attached to the 
Union : she would gladly have preserved it ; she would willingly 
reconstruct it. Not long since she would have accepted, and 
advised her Southern sister States to accept, a most moderate 
basis of settlement. But events daily strengthen the feeling 
for secession. Your defiant speeches, and still more insulting 
indifference, your threats of military coercion, inflame her 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 69 

people; your rejection of all compromises induces the belief 
that you are determined to rule, if need be, by the sword ; and 
as-this belief grows into conviction, so rises Virginia's estimate 
of the conditions which would make this a safe Union for 
the South. And let no man doubt where she would be in 
the final disruption. She will join no border State Confede- 
racy, with two frontiers to defend instead of one, cut off from 
the natural outlet for her emigration in the South, and with 
all the territorial and slavery controversies in the new Union, 
which drove her out of the old." 

Mr. Garnett continued to argue that Virginia could not 
hesitate as to which Confederacy she should join. "She will 
never abandon her principles, or those Southern States which, 
sprung from her loins and formed in her similitude, have multi- 
plied her honors, and endowed the Old Dominion with a 
youth ever new." 

He asserted further that, if peace could be preserved, a 
reconstruction would be possible and desirable. The Union 
could not be safe or happy except as a Union of equal sections. 
He looked to a Northern and a Southern Confederacy. "Let 
not theirs be a contention with blood-stained arms, but a gen- 
erous rivalry in the arts of peace" ; this he thought both "pos- 
sible and desirable." This speech shows the desire of the 
Southern people for peaceable secession. It shows, too, that 
secession was the act of the people of the Southern States, 
and not of a few leaders, as is sometimes erroneously asserted. 

From an Address to the Voters of the First Congres- 
sional District of Virginia, 1863. 

Tn the fall of 1863 Mr. Garnett issued an address 

"To the Voters of the First Congressional Distriet: 

"The session of Congress has been protracted to so late a 
day that I shall not be able to visit you at your several courts, 
as is usual before an election. I regret this the less because 
I am sure that your feelings, as well as my own, would dis- 
approve an electioneering canvass amid the perils and anxie- 



/O Biographical Sketch 

ties of this momentous war. I feel also that, as I am well 
known to you all, and there is happily no difference of politi- 
cal opinion amongst us, I may well leave you to decide whether 
I can any longer be useful to you or our country in my present 
position. For I assure you, fellow-citizens, that in asking a 
re-election, I am influenced by no motive of personal advan- 
tage or ambition. 

"Early in the war, when the whole District was in our 
possession and able to vote, I was elected by its almost unani- 
mous voice, and I have devoted myself ever since to a zealous 
and faithful discharge of the duties then imposed on me, to 
the serious neglect of my private interests. For I feel, dur- 
ing this struggle for all that makes life dear to us, my time 
and my talents, such as they are, belong not to myself, but 
to the sacred cause we defend. The oflfice of Representative 
in Congress is one of neither pleasure nor profit ; its only 
value to m'e is the opportunity it affords of serving the country 
in that way for which my previous experience and training 
best fit me. Placed on this post of duty by your voice, I have 
not felt free to abandon it at my own option, until relieved 
by your command to give way for another whom you may 
prefer. I have, therefore, considered iit my duty to an- 
nounce myself a candidate for re-election ; but I do not seek 
your votes on any grounds of mere personal preference, or 
advantage to myself. On the contrary, these are no times to 
reward any man, or to indulge personal preferences, but it is 
the solemn duty of every true lover of his country to vote for 
that man whose abilities and experience will be most useful 
in Congress, whosoever he may be. This is the question you 
are called on to decide at tbjs election, and for one, I shall 
cheerfully acquiesce in your decision. 

"Fortunately the political divisions of former times no longer 
exist. We are all united with the single purpose of a vigorous 
prosecution of the war, until God shall bless the firmness and 
valour of our people with independence and honorable peace. 
In the presence of the vital issues of this war, how distant 
and how trivial does the party strife of other days appear! 



r Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 71 

"You will bear me witness that, though firm in my own 
opinions, I never was personally offensive to those who dif- 
fered with me, and I always maintained that all parties were 
equally governed by pure and patriotic motives. The severe 
tests of war and invasion have gloriously proved this truth ; 
men of all parties hurried to defend the imperilled country; 
none have been laggard — all alike are ready to sacrifice life and 
property for the cause. 

"I trust that even when peace and prosperity give rise to 
new parties, we may still remember the lessons of charity, of 
concord, and of harmony thus emphatically taught us. 

"In my service in this Congress, I have had to deal with 
questions of unusual difficulty. We found ourselves almost 
without mechanical or financial resources to meet a war of un- 
paralled magnitude and ferocity ; we had to provide — nay, to 
create an army, and arms, munitions of war, an organization, 
and money. This time last year, your army had not 100,000 
effective men ; it was deficient in organization, and on the eve 
of dissolution. Badly clad, poorly armed, with a scant supply 
even of powder and ammunition, they were obliged to retreat 
in every quarter. 

"Our credit was so low that no resource was open but 
an indefinite issue of Treasury notes, the evil consequences of 
which it was easy to foresee, but impossible to avoid. Now 
you have an army of half a million of splendid soldiers, well 
organized and disciplined, well armed and clothed, amply pro- 
vided with powder and ammunition, and ready to attack a 
demoralized enemy on all sides. Your credit is established by 
a loan, authorized at this session of Congress in the money 
markets of Europe, where your bonds sell above par, and there 
is reason to hope that recent measures of legislation will arrest 
the depreciation of the currency. 

"During this eventful period, I have supported every 
measure which in my opinion would increase the efficiency of 
the armv, add to the comfort of the soldiers, protect our 



72 Biographical Sketch 

citizens, sustain our finances, reform the currency — in short, 
every constitutional measure which would contribute to the 
defence of the country, the defeat of the enemy, and the 
achievement of independence and peace. 

"A time of war and invasion devolves unusual responsi- 
bilities and powers on the Executive, and it is our duty to sus- 
tain it with generous confidence. All the world has admired 
the patriotism and ability which has distinguished the Adminis- 
tration, and while exercising an entire independence of action, 
I have been happy in giving to it a liberal support. 

"I have heard of no complaint against my course as your 
Representative ; I am confident it has your approval, and even 
the approval of my opponents. For I am told that the only 
charges against me are that I, or my kinsmen, have served 
long enough. I claim nothing on either account, but I do 
claim that my past services shall not count against me, and 
that I shall not be proscribed on account of my family, or 
the service that any of them may have rendered the country 
in times past. 

"The next Congress will have momentous questions to 
settle. We may confidently hope that before its termination 
the terms of peace will be made, and our peace establishment 
organized and settled on a broad and firm foundation. Vir- 
ginia will be deeply interested in its legislation ; her bounda- 
ries may be in question ; her territory has been ravaged by 
war and by the contending armies, and her people will have 
large claims for indemnity ; she will need the highest wisdom, 
the best talents, and the largest experience she can summon 
to her councils, and it is with sincere diffidence that I ask 
an election at such a time. You are fairer judges of my 
capacity than I can be ; all I can certainly promise is entire 
devotion to your cause, which is also mine. 

M. R. H. Garnett." 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 73 

From Letter to the Writer by Hon. T. R. B. Wright. 

The following tribute from the Hon. T. R. B. Wright, Judge 
of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit of Virginia, who knew Mr. 
Garnett well, is appended : 

"Tappahannock, Va., 

January 2"], 1909. 

"The first time I remember ever seeing Hon. M. R. H. 
Garnett was while a school boy at Fleetwood Academy, under 
Mr. Oliver White, a fine scholar and great teacher. 

"Mr. Junius Roane, of King and Quaen County, was 
the Whig candidate for the House of Delegates, and Hon. 
M. R. H. Garnett was the Democratic candidate. The District 
was composed of King and Queen and Essex Counties. These 
two candidates met in joint debate at Old Clark's precinct, 
King and Queen County. Partizan and red-hot politics ran 
high. Mr. White, a great Democrat, gave us holiday that day 
to attend the discussion, and the whole Academy went. I 
think Essex was called a Whig county, and King and Queen 
a Democratic Gibraltar. Hon. M. R. H. Garnett, of Essex, 
was nominated by the Democrats, with all the eclat of great 
scholarship and political philosophy, wisdom and acumen. 
He was heralded as a little giant in debate. Junius Roane 
had fine gifts, dashing and very aggressive. He was put up 
by the Whigs to meet and demolish as a Whig champion his 
opponent. Of course I was too young to judge of the merits 
of the discussion. The applause was deafening. The con- 
sensus of opinion was, and the aftermath seemed to be, that 
Roane had received such a hammering from Garnett that in 
the final analysis it would prove a Waterloo to Roane. The 
gifts and attainments of these two young gladiators were of 
the first quality, and the thrusts at each other were quite bril- 
liant. What Garnett lacked in logic, he made up in voice and 
volume, yet I thought in all these Garnett was the superior. 



74 Biographical Sketch 

At any rate Garnett carried his District in the fall election. 
My father was a supporter of Garnett and it may be I was 
a little prejudiced. 

"I remember that I also saw him during the Gubernatorial 
contest between Wise and Flournoy. Henry A. Wise spoke at 
this place in the Court House. An immense throng greeted 
Mr. Wise, and there was hardly standing room. M. R. H. 
Garnett introduced Wise to the Essex people. His strong, 
resonant, clear voice rang to the uttermost parts of the crowd 
with a searching timbre. It was thrilling. His manner was 
graceful and easy, and his well-chiseled face and charming 
personality were simply superb. He appeared every inch a 
man and a statesman. The tribute paid to him by the Essex 
people exceeded Carlyle's 'Hero Worship." 

"It was whispered at the time that the entente cordial be- 
tween him and Mr. Wise was not good and genuine; but Gar- 
nett inspired all with confidence, and Wise had a perfect field- 
day and a grand ovation. 

"I never heard him in the Congressional contest with John 
Critcher. Mr. Garnett always told his friends that Critcher 
improved in every debate with him and proved himself a 
skilful debater. Garnett was elected to Congress. 

"I heard Garnett in one debate with Prof. Saunders, of 
William and Mary College. Saunders was a great scholar, 
but no match for Garnett in debate ; Garnett also beat him. 
During the War between the States, when Gov. Robert L. 
Montague beat him, I do not think they ever met in debate. 

"In the Constitutional Convention of 1849-50, his debates 
with Gov. Floyd gave him great prestige and eclat. 

"It is often said that Garnett was the most brilliant man 
Essex ever produced. Whether he had a more brilliant mind 
than his distinguished uncle. U. S. Senator R. M. T. Hunter, 
I am unable to say. I have heard Mr. Hunter, and I regard 
him in physique, voice, delivery and matter one of the greatest 
orators and statesmen America has produced. I never com- 
pare the two. Both were gifted, brilliant, and great orators, 
debaters and statesmen. 



Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett 75 

"Their portraits — faces strong, striking and intellectual — 
embellish the walls of our court-room here and are the pride 
of our people — the Castor and Pollux of our gallery — the twin 
stars that shine in the brilliant galaxy. 

"I have it from the highest authority that Mr. Calhoun 
remarked once to Dr. A. Y. P. Garnett, of Washington, D. C, 
that M. R. H. Garnett was the best-informed man he had ever 
conversed with ; that in his last speech in the Senate Garnett 
was the man that he got his points from ; that he was a walking 
encyclopedia, and Mr. Gales, former editor of the National 
Intelligencer, stated in his paper that Mr. Calhoun informed 
him that Garnett was the best-posted man he ever met. 

"Mr. Clay once visited Essex — I do not know whether he 
was a visitor at Font, Hill (the Hunter residence) or Elm- 
wood (the Garnett residence). While attending church at old 
Vawter's he was heard to pay a grand tribute to Mr. Garnett. 
This is a tradition, but easily authenticated, I believe, from 
the source I heard it. H you will read the literary address 
of Mr. Garnett before the Society of Alumni of the University 
of Virginia in the Rotunda 29 June [July 4], 1850, you will 
see readily the breadth of his mind and the depth of his 
scholarship. 

"He was intensely Southern, and Virginia and the South 
were a religion on his lips. I take a short extract from his 
peroration : 

" 'When Pericles had placed before the Athenians all the 
reasons they had to love and value their country, and shown 
to what pitch of greatness she might be raised, if they would 
act worthily of her, and of themselves, he thought that he 
could sum up all — the fame of the past, the glory of the future, 
the duties of the present — in one word, by saying that Athens 
was the School of Greece. 

" 'Let us, I beseech you, gentlemen, apply that one word 
to ourselves. Here, in these walls, may Virginia continue to 
educate the Southern youth ; here may she bind their affections 
to the land of their ancestors, and hence send them out as mis- 
sionaries of her principles ! May her genius build up a new 



76 Biographical Sketch 

Parthenon of letters on this Acropohs ! Long, long may the 
old Mother Commonwealth hold high festival on this an- 
niversary of her independence; long may she assemble her 
daughters at these, her yearly Panathenaea ; long may she be 
the leader, the model, and the School of the South — of that 
South, which, by her noble people, her wise institutions, her 
future glorious literature, is destined some day to be the 
School of the World!'" 

"T. R. B. Wright, 

"Judge Twelfth Judicial Circuit of Virginia." 




I III mil mil 1111 III! 
011 899 116 3 I 




